Away from the pulsating life of the big city, Elizabeth Shaw found a haven of peace in Ahrenshoop without having to forego intellectual exchange. Here she met fellow artists and friends, such as the families of Fritz Cremer, Herbert Sandberg, Bodo Uhse. The house of the composer Leo Spies, where Shaw lived again and again later, became a refuge for her family. Elizabeth Shaw had a deep inner relationship with Leo Spies, Herbert Sandberg's son-in-law. Spies had acquired a Büdnerei in Althagen in 1958, which was a place of work and life during the summer months. With loose, light strokes, Elizabeth Shaw captured life in the Spies house in watercolour pen-and-ink drawings and delicate pastels, sometimes with a love of detail. Interiors and views of the garden and the expanse of the Bodden landscape speak of the feeling of carefree existence.