These are the warm, summery, beach-vacation-feeling paintings of Clare Elsaesser. I haven’t come across an artist who made me feel this intimately acquainted with their subjects since I discovered the works of Yvan Favre. And like Favre, Elsaesser manages to create that sense of intimacy without ever showing her subject’s faces. In a way, it makes them seem at once familiar and mysterious, like snapshots taken of your parents before your birth.

We are summer beach people, so these wonderful paintings feel exactly right. One of these pieces will certainly be one gracing our walls just as soon as I can choose!

If you enjoy Ms. Elsaesser’s work, you can actually see her current paintings in progress on her Instagram. How generous of her!

All images property of Clare Elsaesser.