Framed oil on canvas painting 9"x12"

Elizabeth Downer is an American painter who lived in Oaxaca in southern Mexico for many years. Her paintings have been exhibited in the United States, Switzerland and Mexico.

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, Elizabeth moved to Paris while still a teenager and was raised on a barge on the Seine.  She was exposed to the world of film by her mother, the documentary filmmaker Heidi Draper, and worked alongside her on several projects including a film celebrating the epic singers of Mongolia. Elizabeth went on to study film at NYU’s graduate film program, where she made the award-winning short  “Home,” about the legacy of Native American children adopted into non-native homes.

After graduating, Elizabeth began work as a film editor and teacher in New York City and there discovered a new love in painting.  She began to study at the Art Students League in Manhattan, happily escaping the den of the editing room for the freedom of the paint brush.

In 2004, Elizabeth moved to Mexico with her husband and two young daughters. Inspired by the Impressionists use of light and color and the beauty of the Oaxacan countryside, she began to paint en plein air.  Drawn to the colorful headscarves of the women of San Bartolomé Quialana, a village in the central valleys,  Elizabeth began her first series of paintings of villagers planting and harvesting their land.

The painting donated for this auction is from her Landscape Series.

Elizabeth now lives in New York City with her family.