Elizabeth was born in Goulburn, New South Wales, Australia. She studied art at the East Sydney Technical College and in 1971, she won the coveted P & O Ship Company Art Award. The prize was a year long, all expenses paid trip for two to Europe which allowed her to visit Ireland for the first time as well as France, Spain and Portugal. The artist lived and exhibited in Portugal with her husband until 1993 when she returned to Ireland and settled in Tinahealy, Co. Wicklow where she currently resides.

She is Ireland's leading impressionistic painter and one of the fastest selling living artist in this country. Her paintings belong in many corporate collections such as: Eagle Star Insurance Company, Ulster Bank, Allied Irish Banks and Bank of Ireland.

Elizabeth Brophy is represented in many public and private collections in the USA, Portugal, Spain, France, England and Ireland.