A keen observor of the human figure, Coffee depicts the body language of people in a wide range of environments. However, she intends her paintings as much more than figural compositions in familiar settings; more than mere snapshots of time and place. She strives for expressions of attitudes and atmospheres; spontaneous gestures with endless possibilities for interpretation.

A New Jersey native, Elaine Coffee completed her formal training at the School of Visual Arts in New York City and has traveled throughout the United States and Europe gathering inspiration for her contemporary genre paintings. With a sketchbook for notes on site, Coffee returns to the studio where she begins to work directly on the canvas with little preliminary drawing underneath. With a warm, tonal palette, the artist carfully manipulates a combination of studies into a complex composition intended to offer hours of speculation for the viewer.

Elaine Coffee is a member of the National League of American Pen Women, the Arizona Artists Guild and the Sonoran Arts League, and her paintings may be found in public and private collections throughout the United States and Europe.