MY STORY
My artist name “Ellair” comes from my full name, Edith Ellwood Pair and the street I grew up on in Grosse Pointe, MI named “Ellair Place.”
I can still remember my first oil painting set bought by my father and given to me at 8 years old. Together we painted my first still-life with an easel in our our dining room. After that, I was hooked and made art my full time commitment in life.
After graduating high school in 1992, I attended Parsons School of Design pre-college course and my love of fashion design sprung to life. I continued onto graduate with a BFA from the prestigious School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1996 with a major in Fashion Design. I worked for various companies as an Assistant Buyer until I decided to move back to Charlevoix to open my own gallery.
Ellair Gallery opened in 2006 which was an unfortunate time to start anything due to the struggling economy. Despite the lack luster financial world at that time…I did remain open for almost 6 years. I finally pulled the plug and concentrated on doing custom order artwork, freelancing and focusing on my now famous “Mushroom House Tour” company.
Since then I am proud to have been accepted into ArtPrize in Grand Rapids for three years running and have my artwork in numerous galleries in the Northern Michigan area including what I consider to be the best gallery in the state, Michigan Artist Gallery, in Traverse City, MI.
Elements Gallery in Charlevoix also hosts my work and is home to my Mushroom House Tours.
I have been lucky to have many custom order clients who give me steady freelance and custom orders and have been recently commissioned by Harborview Cafe in Charlevoix to do all the murals for their new establishment.
Look for my famous "Pear-on-a-Plate" hidden in each of my pieces, showing it is an original work of Edith Pair!!
