My name is Elma Larsen. I was born in Indonesia and emigrated to the UK at a young age. For most of my adult life, I was caught up working in academia and the IT sector, nurturing art only as a hobby.

Although I have not pursued art to a commercial capacity, over the years I have been humbled to have been used by God to touch people's lives through my art, particularly with portrait commissions. The most touching for me is witnessing people's reactions to portraits of their loved ones that have passed away. Tears of love often flow as they tell of how the portraits make them look as if they have come back to life, and later they recount how they have been comforted in their grief. This is a most fulfilling purpose of art - one that I could not have accomplished on my own, but only in partnership with God, who puts life into these portraits. It is for this reason that I have incorporated the symbol of the "Cross" in my signature on my more recent works. All glory be to God!

I am inspired by the works of the Old Masters, and so my work is highly realistic and classical in style. I love the details of colours, light, shadow and texture. I work in pencil, ink & pen, chalk & charcoal, coloured pastels, and oils. When working on portraits, I seek not only to capture the physical likeness of my subjects, but also their personality, character and spirit.

My other interests include sewing, embroidery, quilting, stained-glass painting, knitting, crochet, foreign languages, writing/blogging, and tutoring Mathematics. I am also active in the ministry of Healing and Deliverance - for more info: https://www.elmalarsen.net/