Windh/Freise/Maurstad genealogy - Person Sheet
Windh/Freise/Maurstad genealogy - Person Sheet
NameWinston Harold ELLIOTT
Birth24 May 1924, Lamont, Alberta, Canada
OccupationArtist
Education2 years military
ReligionProtestant
Misc. Notes
From an article in the NORTH SHORE NEWS (Vancouver, BC)
JULY 17, 2011 01:00 AM
“He planned to become an architect but the Canadian Navy changed that. This prairie boy, born in Alberta and raised in Saskatchewan, never got to sea nor did he become an architect.
While stationed in Saskatoon in 1943, Win's portraits caught the eye of the officer in charge. The officer, in civilian life writer Max Braithwaite, commissioned portraits of himself and his family.
On the strength of these, Win was transferred to the naval art section in Ottawa.
Working with official war artist and mentor Grant MacDonald, he was assigned to paint portraits of decorated naval heroes. At war's end, the young man who started out with no formal artistic training was accepted into third year at the Ontario College of Art.
In 1947, the newly graduated artist was visiting his parents in Jasper, Alta., and taking on portrait commissions. One was of local girl Phyllis Windh.
"My parents wanted me to marry a railroad man," she says, "but that was not to be."
Two years later, on July 4, 1949, Win and Phyl were married.
The newly wedded couple worked and saved so they could camp and travel in their Hillman Minx. On one trip to Mexico, all their possessions were stolen from the little car.
An artist friend told them not to worry as they'd be able to buy everything back the following day at the thieves' market.
"We could have if we had money, which we did not," recalls Phyl. "Our family wired $40 to get us back to Canada. I don't know how we did it, but we made it."
The experience was one of those that in hindsight they wonder how they ever made it through. For Win and Phyl, raising a family on an artist's income, these experiences were frequent. Happily, blessings came along just as often.
When Win's parents decided to retire in British Columbia, they purchased a house in West Vancouver, allowing the family, which included daughters Kris and Stacy, to live there while they built their own home across the street.
"We'd do anything to save money while we built our house," says Phyl. "Win was handy and a very good carpenter. He decided he would stain the ceiling beams. There he'd be, suspended two stories in the air, painting away, with me on the ground keeping him awake. I'll never forget the night we watched through the beams as Sputnik made its way across the sky."
Win carpooled to downtown Vancouver where he worked as a commercial artist known for his technical mastery in a variety of mediums.
Projects included architectural drawings, advertising illustrations for household products and housing developments, posters for the NHL and logos for Canadian Airlines and the CFL.
Phyl remembers shopping at Woodward's at Park Royal, "walking down Taylor Way and back up again, with Stacy in her stroller and Kris determined to carry as much of the groceries as she could manage."
When the girls were old enough, Phyl went to work. She started at the Royal Bank in Ambleside and moved on to the District of West Vancouver where she headed the tax department.
Phyl was still working for the municipality in 1989 when she and daughter Kris launched their business. "We knew we wanted a colour and an animal in the name," said Kris. "We came up with Red Horses and Win designed the logo." Within a couple of years, two retail carts at City Square had grown into the shop in Dundarave where Phyl was a familiar face until her recent retirement.
Win continued to accept portrait commissions of children and families, Canadian senators and university chancellors, working in watercolour, oil and graphite. Landscapes with western themes, boating scenes and his family were frequent subjects and can be found in collections across Canada. In 2007, the West Vancouver Museum and Archives mounted a retrospective of Win's work.
Recently, Win has set aside his paints and brushes for an exacto knife, a ruler and a glue stick. He is creating maquettes, scale models of the buildings he imagines. With each one, unique and beautifully designed, the artist and the architect are becoming one and the same.
See a video of Winston Elliott’s art work here:
Winston Elliott Artist EXRESSIONS - YouTube
JULY 17, 2011 01:00 AM
“He planned to become an architect but the Canadian Navy changed that. This prairie boy, born in Alberta and raised in Saskatchewan, never got to sea nor did he become an architect.
While stationed in Saskatoon in 1943, Win's portraits caught the eye of the officer in charge. The officer, in civilian life writer Max Braithwaite, commissioned portraits of himself and his family.
On the strength of these, Win was transferred to the naval art section in Ottawa.
Working with official war artist and mentor Grant MacDonald, he was assigned to paint portraits of decorated naval heroes. At war's end, the young man who started out with no formal artistic training was accepted into third year at the Ontario College of Art.
In 1947, the newly graduated artist was visiting his parents in Jasper, Alta., and taking on portrait commissions. One was of local girl Phyllis Windh.
"My parents wanted me to marry a railroad man," she says, "but that was not to be."
Two years later, on July 4, 1949, Win and Phyl were married.
The newly wedded couple worked and saved so they could camp and travel in their Hillman Minx. On one trip to Mexico, all their possessions were stolen from the little car.
An artist friend told them not to worry as they'd be able to buy everything back the following day at the thieves' market.
"We could have if we had money, which we did not," recalls Phyl. "Our family wired $40 to get us back to Canada. I don't know how we did it, but we made it."
The experience was one of those that in hindsight they wonder how they ever made it through. For Win and Phyl, raising a family on an artist's income, these experiences were frequent. Happily, blessings came along just as often.
When Win's parents decided to retire in British Columbia, they purchased a house in West Vancouver, allowing the family, which included daughters Kris and Stacy, to live there while they built their own home across the street.
"We'd do anything to save money while we built our house," says Phyl. "Win was handy and a very good carpenter. He decided he would stain the ceiling beams. There he'd be, suspended two stories in the air, painting away, with me on the ground keeping him awake. I'll never forget the night we watched through the beams as Sputnik made its way across the sky."
Win carpooled to downtown Vancouver where he worked as a commercial artist known for his technical mastery in a variety of mediums.
Projects included architectural drawings, advertising illustrations for household products and housing developments, posters for the NHL and logos for Canadian Airlines and the CFL.
Phyl remembers shopping at Woodward's at Park Royal, "walking down Taylor Way and back up again, with Stacy in her stroller and Kris determined to carry as much of the groceries as she could manage."
When the girls were old enough, Phyl went to work. She started at the Royal Bank in Ambleside and moved on to the District of West Vancouver where she headed the tax department.
Phyl was still working for the municipality in 1989 when she and daughter Kris launched their business. "We knew we wanted a colour and an animal in the name," said Kris. "We came up with Red Horses and Win designed the logo." Within a couple of years, two retail carts at City Square had grown into the shop in Dundarave where Phyl was a familiar face until her recent retirement.
Win continued to accept portrait commissions of children and families, Canadian senators and university chancellors, working in watercolour, oil and graphite. Landscapes with western themes, boating scenes and his family were frequent subjects and can be found in collections across Canada. In 2007, the West Vancouver Museum and Archives mounted a retrospective of Win's work.
Recently, Win has set aside his paints and brushes for an exacto knife, a ruler and a glue stick. He is creating maquettes, scale models of the buildings he imagines. With each one, unique and beautifully designed, the artist and the architect are becoming one and the same.
See a video of Winston Elliott’s art work here:
Winston Elliott Artist EXRESSIONS - YouTube
Spouses
Birth27 Nov 1928, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. “Beautiful baby.”
OccupationCo-owner of Red Horses Gallery in West Vancouver, BC
ReligionProtestant
FatherPer (Pete) Lyringfrid (Lingfrid) WINDH (1890-1955)
MotherBorghild AMUNDRUD (1895-1980)
Misc. Notes
In 1989 Phyllis wrote:
My father was very good to me and gave me a lot of attention, probably because I had pneumonia at 3 months and was not expected to live (no miracle drugs then). I think he felt a bit responsible for my catching a cold in the first place. I also had the advantage (in some ways) of being the third girl, and by that time he had given up expecting this kid to be brilliant. He was much harder on Beulah, from whom he expected perfection.
I remember that he was very quick and I think quite clever, certainly mathematically. I used to stare in awe when he would add up a column of figures so quickly. The school teachers also asked him to come to school to demonstrate the "correct" way to write, and he had beautiful handwriting.
I saw my father cry when he received a letter from Sweden saying that his mother had died. I was quite young.
My father was very good to me and gave me a lot of attention, probably because I had pneumonia at 3 months and was not expected to live (no miracle drugs then). I think he felt a bit responsible for my catching a cold in the first place. I also had the advantage (in some ways) of being the third girl, and by that time he had given up expecting this kid to be brilliant. He was much harder on Beulah, from whom he expected perfection.
I remember that he was very quick and I think quite clever, certainly mathematically. I used to stare in awe when he would add up a column of figures so quickly. The school teachers also asked him to come to school to demonstrate the "correct" way to write, and he had beautiful handwriting.
I saw my father cry when he received a letter from Sweden saying that his mother had died. I was quite young.
Marriage4 Jul 1949, in Jasper, Alberta, Canada 
ChildrenKristin Dawne (1953-)
Stacy Lorraine (1957-)