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Pregnant woman

Mestre Elias - 2026

Hand-carved wooden sculpture

36,00 cm height x 7,00cm width x 5,00 cm depth

USD 55,00

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Delivery period: 20 to 25 days to any country outside Brazil

The work of art is sent directly from the artist’s studio in Brazil to your home

Product code: 15751

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THE ARTIST

Mestre Elias

Before flowers ever bloomed, before rivers carved their paths across the earth, or before the landscapes we now call breathtaking came into being, beauty already existed. It was born within life itself.

Perhaps its very first manifestation was the moment a mother carried a child within her womb. Because there is something profoundly beautiful in the ability to create, nurture, and transform.

Nature enchants us through its abundance, its colors, textures, and cycles. Yet nature itself teaches us that all true beauty emerges from a quiet process of growth.

And perhaps that is why one does not need to be a mother to be moved by a sculpture of motherhood. Each person sees a different story within it: perhaps the younger child still sheltered in the womb while the older one has already found their place in the world; or perhaps the firstborn who transformed a woman into a mother and introduced her to a kind of love she had never known before.

Beauty lies precisely in its ability to connect us with care, belonging, and creation. These qualities belong not only to mothers, nor exclusively to women, but to the human experience itself. After all, we all carry within us the need to love, protect, and be cared for.

It was within this essential beauty of motherhood that the journey of Brazilian artist Elias José — better known as Mestre Elias — was deeply shaped. While working as a janitor in a maternity hospital, he experienced firsthand the intensity and emotion surrounding birth and motherhood.

By observing the affection reflected in people’s gazes, gestures, and words, and by witnessing the tenderness that accompanies the act of giving birth, the artist was profoundly moved by the emotion surrounding the arrival of a child into the world.

Motherhood revealed to him one of the deepest expressions of human beauty: the ability to create life. From this encounter between sensitivity and wonder emerged an important part of the poetic universe that would later find form in his work.

Through wood, Mestre Elias began to sculpt the soft, rounded contours of pregnant bodies, shaping them in a gentle and harmonious way, as though naturally following the growth of life itself. The delicate gestures of his figures — hands embracing the belly, slightly curved bodies, and faces tilted in contemplation — reveal care, affection, and protection.

The delicacy of these forms carries a profound emotional depth, transforming wood into a representation of the bond between mother and child. In each piece, his craftsmanship reveals itself through carefully hand-carved details, the organic touch of the wood, and the way the artist respects the material’s natural contours to bring each sculpture to life.

It is the recognition from viewers and the emotions awakened by his work that continually fuel his creative process, inspiring him to imagine new ways of portraying motherhood: mothers expecting twins, mothers holding their children in their arms, or expressing care and connection through different gestures.

But mothers were not always the central subject of his artistic practice. Early in his career, Mestre Elias primarily sculpted animals — especially horses and ox carts — while also creating works with surrealist influences.

His connection with craftsmanship began around thirty years ago, when a colleague introduced him to wood carving.

For many years, art occupied only his spare time, until he realized he could make a living from what he created and decided to dedicate himself entirely to his craft.

Born in Paudalho, Pernambuco, he learned the trade in Paraíba — the state where he still lives today and continues creating his sculptures.

Fascinated by the process of transforming wood into art, the artist also takes great pride in what craftsmanship has made possible in his own life — including providing an education for his two children: today, his daughter is a registered nurse, and his son is studying medicine.

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