Artist Biography

Elizabeth Topham was born in Vancouver, British Columbia where she currently lives and works. Inspired by a couple years of backpacking through the U.K. and Europe, she returned to Vancouver to study mixed media and painting at Emily Carr College of Art + Design. She was awarded the Carter-Begg Scholarship for painting in her second year and graduated with a Diploma in Visual Arts in 1991. Her interest in nature led her to study at Atlin Centre for the Arts on a Tuition Scholarship with guest artists Irene F. Whittome and Al McWilliams. She continued her studies in nature and became a Certified Arborist in 2003. In 2007 she returned to Emily Carr University of Art + Design graduating with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in 2008.

Her first solo exhibit was in 2010 of her oil painting series, Desire: The Magnificent Obsession. In 2012 she exhibited the largest of these works, study #31, which measured 4’ x 25’ at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. She received an Honourable Mention for her painting, Self-portrait @ age 47, for The Kingston Prize for Canadian Portraiture 2013, exhibiting in Ontario and Alberta in the same year. Currently she is continuing exploration of the invasive plant species of blackberry bramble, both as subject matter and found material.