Huvy’s childhood, filled with the wild beauty and heavenly scent of olive trees, wild poppies and gladiolas, was the initial nesting place where her artistic flair and her great love of beauty will first send their tentative roots.

Huvy (Ahuva) Elisha lived in Jerusalem until age six. Much of her fascination for the natural beauty of Jerusalem and its flora were birthed during those early years of wide-eyed childhood exploration of the Judean hills just outside the Bucharim section of her neighborhood.

At age six, following her father’s business dealings abroad, the family moved to Vienna, then Prague, and then London. Too soon, however, the London Blitz forced them to move once again, and the family now found themselves in the beautiful seaside resort of Torquay in Devonshire, South West England.

It was there that Huvy’s artistic talent really began to flourish. Herself an artist, Huvy’s new headmistress recognized Huvy’s prodigious skill and lovingly encouraged her. When Huvy was but 14 years old, the headmistress wrote a recommendation to the prestigious St. Martin’s School of Art in London. Impressed by her evident talent, the school accepted Huvy as the youngest student ever to enroll, and Huvy began to study at St. Martin’s as a 14-year-old child prodigy.

During the following years, Huvy worked hard and absorbed every art form available. After her marriage, the new couple settled in England for a while. Very quickly, however, the two realized that their true wish was to raise their children in Israel. Huvy, together with her husband and three children, eventually came back home, to Jerusalem.

Huvy’s freshness and joy of life is evident in all her paintings. She never tires of painting wedding scenes; luscious garden ceremonies, blooming trees, exuberant chupas, jubilant flowers, the bride and groom’s joining of their souls… a deliciously joyous feast for the discerning eye.

Professionally speaking, Huvy is a European-trained, classically educated impressionist and post-impressionist artist who works with pastel, watercolor, pen, and oil. In Israel, she has become the subject of many a tour guide. Visitors are curious to discover how it is that a European-trained classical artist has come to live and work in Meah Shearim, the ultrareligious section of Jerusalem.

Huvy’s secret lies in the neighborhood just outside her current home; that same neighborhood whose beauty first inspired her to spend her life recording G-d’s artistry in the world. Huvy also views it as her sacred mission to recreate the fervor and holiness of prewar European Jewry. This has been most vividly captured in her famous wedding scenes.

One of those lovely wedding scenes will soon be on display in the luxurious new Waldorf Astoria – Jerusalem. In a recent agreement with the world’s première hotel chain, nine of Huvy’s beautiful works will adorn this stately hotel. With the youthful memories of sparkling Jerusalem etched deeply in her soul, the other huvy paintings naturally include stirring scenes of the walls of Jerusalem as well as other quaint Jerusalem neighborhoods, the poppies of her youth and two dramatic scenes of the holiday of Purim, as described in the Book of Esther.

On another wall, not too far from this world-class hotel displaying but a few of her magnificent works, you can discover a closer, more intimate viewing of some of the world’s most stirring paintings. Watch the world still for a moment as it is slowly, breathtakingly, captured through.