Elsa Marie Herrmann, age 87 years, of Brick, NJ, died peacefully on Sunday, August 14, 2022, at Hunterdon Care Center in Raritan Township, NJ, surrounded by her loving family.
Born and raised on February 14, 1935, in Staten Island, NY, daughter of the late Karl and Theodora Townsend VonKokeritz, Elsa attended Curtis High School and graduated from Skidmore College.
Elsa married her husband, Siegfried, in 1962 and started a family; having a son, Peter, and a daughter, Kristina. They lived briefly in Irvington, NJ, and then Green Brook, NJ, before moving to Hunterdon County, Readington, NJ, in 1974. She and her husband moved to Tewksbury, NJ, in 1978 and lived there for the next twenty-three years, on a gentleman’s horse farm. Throughout her life Elsa enjoyed boating with her family, riding horses, and was passionate about painting in historic Oldwick, NJ. Elsa was known to be seen painting on the side of the road in Oldwick, with her easel, painting one masterpiece after the other.
Elsa’s very first job was as an Art teacher in Chatham, NJ, and continued her career teaching at North Plainfield High School, in North Plainfield, NJ, for over thirty-five years and retired in 2001. She loved teaching art and being with the students. Shortly after retiring, she and her husband moved to Brick, NJ, where they lived for the next twenty-one years on the water. She continued to paint, enjoyed boating, and going on an occasional jet ski ride. Elsa was an accomplished professional watercolor/oil artist. Her love of art had no boundaries. She painted every day of her life in some fashion. She enjoyed painting trips to both San Miguel, Mexico, and to Italy with her colleagues. For countless years, she painted a different Christmas card each year and sent the special cards out to friends and family. True to her passion, Elsa would paint every second she could get. If she wasn’t painting in one of her home art studios, you would find her painting on location or sitting in the back of her small SUV while she painted.
Elsa has exhibited widely in NJ, and has been the recipient of many awards, among which are the Pauline Wick and the President’s Awards from the AAPL, and the Joan Day Memorial Award from the Tewksbury Historical Society. She is best known for her vibrant watercolors of local scenes and house portraits. A true love of the spontaneity and joy of the medium is evident in her work. Although since moving to the Jersey Shore in 2001, seascapes and the use of oil paints have enlarged her repertoire. She is represented in collections in Germany and Switzerland, and the A.M. Best Company in Oldwick, NJ. She was a member of the Ocean County Artists’ Guild, the Manasquan River Group of Artists, the Laurleton Art Society, the AAPL, Raritan Valley Arts’ Association, and the Garden State Watercolor Society. She was an elected member of the New Jersey Watercolor Association.
Once settling in Brick, she enjoyed going to classic car shows with her husband, where they showed many of their own classic cars and very often won trophies for their meticulously kept cars. Elsa was an avid reader, as well as a very accomplished ice skater and roller skater in her early adult life. She could slalom waterski quite well. Elsa was very physically active, as well, and you would find her quite often going to the local gym. Elsa was fluent in German and had a love for learning new languages, while learning Spanish in her later years.
Everyone loved Elsa. She was incredibly talented, beautiful inside and out, always cheerful, and friendly, sweet, smart, and always fun to be around. She loved being with her family and with her art friends. Art was her life!
Mom, you will live in all our hearts forever. Your gift to us, among many, is all your beautiful artwork. Your art will forever be treasured by so many, and it will surround us and fill us with never ending joy and fond memories of you.
We will all will miss you, Mom, deeply and profoundly.
Love you Mom. ❤️
Surviving are her husband, Siegfried Herrmann; daughter, Kristina Marrazza and her husband, Mark; son, Peter Herrmann and his companion, Lori; sister, Joan Robinson; two grandchildren, Brett and Lannie; and many dear friends.
Cremation was private under the care and direction of Wright & Ford Family Funeral Home and Cremation Services, 38 State Highway 31, Flemington, NJ.
Life Celebration services will be announced at a later date. Please check back as this page will be updated when the information is finalized.
You are encouraged to visit Elsa’s permanent life celebration site at www.wrightfamily.com to light a candle of hope, leave messages of condolence, share words of comfort and recollection, and post photographs of her life.
________________________
Wright & Ford, your local, family owned & operated “Life Celebration Home”
To plant a tree in memory of Elsa Marie Herrmann, please visit our Tribute Store.