Elisa R. Boughner was born in the United States, raised in Mexico and studied art in America and Europe. Her work reflects the influence of each of these cultures, and of a range of painting styles from the Impressionists, through the German Expressionists, and finally the Cubist. The result is a unique and highly personal style that brings extraordinary vibrancy to often ordinary subjects.

Boughner uses traditional forms such as still life but animates them through bold, often unconventional color and dynamic brushwork. By using often densely layered colors she achieves a complex, subtle and wide emotional range that transforms studies of external surfaces into exposes of internal feeling. The contrast between her objective subject matter and subjective treatment generates a creative dissonance that brings the paintings richly to life.

She uses the bright colors characteristic of Mexican painting but employs them in the viscerally communicative fashion of the Expressionists. Her palette is often innovative, sometimes subversive, achieving striking complements and juxtapositions. Her intuitive, almost tactile use of color and form speaks a highly personal artistic language, one that communicates directly and eloquently with the viewer.