An artist based in United States - Paris

Eleanor Winters (Mentor)

Prior to starting calligraphy, Eleanor studied fine-art as an undergraduate at Brooklyn College in New York and completed her Masters degree at New York University. She started studying calligraphy during those years (early 1970s) and continued to study calligraphy, both formally and on her own, in subsequent decades. 'Learning calligraphy is a never-ending process,' she shares. Eleanor has been exhibiting her calligraphic artwork in solo- and group-shows for the past 40 years. Her concentration since 2010 has been her Holocaust project, 'A la Mémoire des Enfants Déportés' a series of more than 200 calligraphic paintings in commemoration of the children of Paris who lost their lives in the Nazi concentration camps during World War. This artwork has been exhibited in museums in the US and Europe, most recently at the Jewish Museum of New Jersey in 2024.

Eleanor’s art tends to be focused on traditional calligraphy, which she has combined with painting techniques. In collaboration with her husband, fine-artist Leendert van der Pool, Eleanor has produced a series of miniature books as well as larger works of art. Her 'A la Mémoire' project continues, in striking contrast to the more playful process of creating artwork with Leendert.

Additionally, she continues to teach online classes (and the occasional in-person class) with an emphasis on traditional scripts. This has included an ongoing series of workshops entitled 'Historical Scripts', in which she introduces students to some of the hands comprising 2000 years of calligraphy. This series of courses is intended to revive and maintain interest in our calligraphic roots, based on Roman, Uncial, Carolingian, and other traditional scripts that form the basis of 2000 years of calligraphic manuscripts and fine art.

Eleanor has authored five calligraphy instructional books: Calligraphy in Ten Easy Lessons (Dover Publications, 1984), Mastering Copperplate Calligraphy (Dover Publications, 1989), Calligraphy for Kids (Sterling Publishing, 2004), Calligraphy 1-2-3! (Sterling Publishing, 2006) and Italic and Copperplate Calligraphy (Dover, 2011). “Mastering Copperplate Calligraphy” has also been published in Chinese and Spanish language editions. A new book, “Mastering Copperplate Calligraphy Exercise Book”, will be published in Chinese later in 2020 by Guangxi Fine Art Publishing. She served as Director of the Calligraphy Workshop in New York for 25 years, taught as a Professor of Art at Long Island University from 1990-2005, and sits on the faculty of the New York Society of Scribes Calligraphy School. Eleanor divides her time between New York and Paris. She has taught workshops in the US and Europe and has visited Asia as a calligraphy instructor numerous times, conducting workshops in Hong Kong, Singapore, Jakarta, Taiwan, Manila, Bangkok and Macau, since 2014.