Beginning in the late 1940s and through the 1950s, 1960s and into the 1970s Else’s larger scaled artworks were done as oil on canvas paintings. Some were done soon after a trip from the plein air drawings or watercolors made during trips, others perhaps from memory. One example in the archive is of a small 1958 oil on canvas painting (now in bad condition) from a 1925 watercolor of the same subject.
Between the 1950s through 1970s Else and Axel travelled extensively for Axel’s business. Extent plein air watercolors and drawings suggest that their travels included Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, and South America (Bolivia).
Else seems always to have had watercolor and pencil sketch pads with her on those trips. Over 300 plein air sketches, drawngs and watercolors can be found in her archive of work from that period.
In 1922 and 1923 Else produced over 80 watercolors and pencil sketches of floral subjects. Whether these were done as school assignments from the Rønnow Art School or for personal practice is unknown at this time.
Throughout her life Else employed the still life to develop her technique and explore color and form. Usually the still life consists of items collected from her kitchen or her garden. She worked in watercolor and in colored pencil, one work was made with oil on paper. Over 140 still life paintings and drawings are in the archive; most of them were made in the 1960s and 1970s.
While paintings, watercolors, and drawings of landscapes number in the hundreds, portrait paintings and interiors that often feature persons presumed to be relatives number in the tens. The interiors, much more detail about which will need to be collected from current relatives of Else, are rendered in bright light, colorful, and with brush strokes or pencil marks that are more controlled and not as broad as those found in her landscapes.
Sometime in the 1960s the Madsens bought a summer home on the Baltic coast at Bøtø. The property was densely covered with trees and other vegetation which Axel would spend time thinning or removing. Just beyond the tree line, a short walk from the house, was the windblown shore and beach on the Baltic Sea. Else made numerous drawings, watercolors and paintings of her summers there.
