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An ancient olive tree alone on a sunlit hillside, its gnarled trunk twisting up into a canopy of silver-green leaves.

ELIDON

Portraits of the olive tree. Athens, Greece.

See the work

An olive tree keeps time in a way we can’t. It can stand a thousand years on one hillside, outliving the hands that planted it, the wars, the harvests, the silence in between. I don’t paint landscapes — I paint these trees as portraits, one elder at a time.

The work

Selected works

A few of the trees. Most have already gone to private collections.

  • Theodora

  • Eleni

  • Stavros

  • The Weight of Years

  • Despina

  • The Long Shadow

  • Vigil

  • Yannis

  • The Last of the Grove

  • Beneath a Wide Sky

Represented by Orlik Gallery, Athens.

Most recent paintings now reside in private collections across Europe and beyond.

The story

A living witness of time

  1. MythAthena’s olive on the Acropolis
  2. ~1000 BCThe Vouves elder, Crete
  3. TodayElidon lifts a brush
A wide old olive spreading low across a pale, luminous sky.

The tree

Athena pressed an olive into the rock of the Acropolis, and the city took her name. Three thousand years on, the Vouves olive in Crete still fruits. A grove is never planted for oneself — it is left for whoever comes after.

A tall olive reaching upward, its canopy bright against deep blue sky.

The painter

Elidon works from a studio in Athens and from the groves themselves. One subject, for a lifetime. He sits with a tree for days before the first mark — close enough to read its bark the way you read a face.

A solitary olive lit from the side, every leaf a separate stroke of paint.

The work

These are not landscapes. Each canvas is the portrait of a single tree: the lean of its trunk, the weight of its years, the particular way it holds the light. What he is after is the time held inside the wood.

Biography

Elidon Hoxha

Elidon is a self-taught artist renowned for his evocative depictions of olive trees. Born in Tirana, Albania, he has lived in Athens since 1992. His studio is in Plaka, the old historic quarter of Athens beneath the Acropolis, where he has devoted his life entirely to art. Painting since childhood, Elidon has built a body of work in which art is not a profession but a way of being — a lifelong pursuit that defines everything he does.

In 2004 he found the subject and style that would come to define his career: the olive tree. What began as exploration became a signature, and over the years his distinctive olive-tree paintings have inspired artists around the world. His work has been shown widely, in both solo and group exhibitions across the globe.

For Hoxha, the olive tree is never simply a tree. He is not interested in painting a mere olive; instead he paints the deep symbols behind it. Since ancient times the olive has carried powerful meanings — eternity, peace, and love. To Elidon it is a sacred tree that represents the true beauty of life. Through his work he tries to transmit these feelings directly to the viewer, connecting them with that spiritual space, filled with peace and happiness, that we all need.

A milestone came in 2024, when he presented a solo exhibition, The Beauty of Life, at the European Museum of Modern Art (MEAM) in Barcelona, on view from 3–12 May. One of his olive-tree paintings is now held in the museum's permanent collection.

“The beauty of life, peace and love is what I want people to feel when they look at my paintings.”
— Elidon

From clients

Handwritten messages, to Elidon

  • Handwritten messages, to Elidon — Elidon
  • Handwritten messages, to Elidon — Elidon
  • Handwritten messages, to Elidon — Elidon