Elton Krafft

BORN: 1914, Elkhart, IN

DIED: 2001, Lake Geneva, WI

Elton Krafft studied art at the Layton School of Art and graduated in 1938.

He then opened his own advertising studio which he ran for several years before serving in the Army Corp of Engineers during WWII in the South Pacific. When Krafft returned, he was given a one-person show featuring his war work at the Pentagon.

Krafft was married in 1945 to a woman he met at the Layton School of Art and he joined Cream City Outdoor Advertising Company in Milwaukee as an Art Director. Up until his retirement in 1985, he created illustrations for major local firms including Schlitz Brewing Co and pioneered the employment of three-dimensional objects on billboards.

As a painter, Krafft prefered to work as an impressionist and often featured the Wisconsin landscape while plein air painting. He said, “You discover things by painting.It's been a lifetime of discovery for my own self.  Every time you put something down on canvas something happens to something else. If it doesn't, the painting's dead.  A painting that is alive grows."

Krafft was the president of the Milwaukee Men’s Sketch Club. He exhibited with the Allis Chalmers Art Association, Harvard, Illinois Art Society, and the League of Milwaukee Artists. He was a member of the Geneva Lake Art Association, Hoosier Salon of Indianapolis, Paletteers, Racine Arts Council, and Walworth County Art Society. His work was also included in exhibitions at the Chicago Art Institute, Charles Allis, Milwaukee Art Center, and Wustum Museum of Fine Arts.

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