Timeline
Early Works: 1939 – 1946
California, Whittier & Los Angeles: 1937 – 1946
Elaine Badgley Arnoux was born Helen Elaine Harper in Omaha, Nebraska, in 1926 where she lived until age 11. In 1937 she and her mother moved to Whittier, California.
San Luis Obispo: 1946 – 1955
In 1946 Badgley Arnoux married and moved to San Luis Obispo with her husband Robert Stranahan. In 1950 she co-founded the San Luis Obispo Art Association…
San Luis Obispo: 1955 – 1965
When Badgley got her first large studio in 1957 she began to paint large-scale abstract works. Among her subjects was her muse, Esther Coulet, who she painted…
San Francisco: 1965 – 1973
San Francisco: 1965 – 1973
Badgley and her family moved to San Francisco in 1965. Their first residence was a house on Fillmore Street that overlooked the rooftops of the Cow Hollow neighborhood…
France: 1971 – 1973
Vaucluse: 1971 – 1973
Prior to moving to France in 1975, Badgley made trips to the Vaucluse region in Provence, France from 1971 to 1973, Her experiences changed her way of seeing forms in the landscape….
Biot: 1975 – 1979
In 1975 Badgley Anroux, along with her son Marcus, moved to Gilles’ hometown of Biot, in the South of France, where she lived from 1975 to 1979. Biot is an ancient village that dates back to 154 BC, situated between Cannes and Nice…
Later Biot: 1980s
Badgley Arnoux returned to Biot several times during the 1980s, and together with Gilles as support with the trips logistics, produced art workshops in Biot, Brittany and in Italy….
San Francisco: 1979 – Present
EBA School of Art: 1981 – 1985
Badgley Arnoux founded the EBA School of Art in 1981 on Geary Boulevard in San Francisco. She developed a course called Drawing Yourself Out, that she first taught at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in 1980. That course was later revised to be The Edge of Vision….
The People of San Francisco: 1982 – Present
The concept for the series The People of San Francisco: Lives of Accomplishment, begun in 1982, was inspired by The People of Biot drawings….
Seven Mayors of San Francisco: 1983 – 2020
The Mayors of San Francisco, a series begun in 1983, includes eight larde scale portraits of former mayors, all painted from life with the exception of George Christopher and George Moscone…
San Francisco: 1979 – Present
Lines of Connection: 1989 – 1999
Badgley Arnoux traveled to New Mexico in 1989 to teach a workshop with San Francisco artist Charles Strong. He inspired her to teach her own workshops in Taos at the Mabel Dodge Luhan Lodge…
New Frontier: 1991 – 1999
The Chief’s Blanket’s played a major role in the New Frontier: Rebuilding the American Dream, a series she began two years later, in 1991. Another important motif- the shopping cart- emerged in Badgley Arnoux’s work, symbolizing the impact of homelssness in the Bay Area….
Unhoused Community Portraits: 1993 – 1999
When one of the first homeless shelters in San Francisco moved in nextdoor to the Bryant Street Studios, Badgley Arnoux became involved with the clientel which resulted in this series of portraits…
The Night Sky: 1993 – 1999
“We are all vulnerable to the night sky”, was yet another departure for Badgley Arnoux. Merging the motif of the Chief’s Blankets into art as social conscience…
Amaryllis: 1980 – Present
Not long after she started the EBA School of Art, Badgley Arnoux began to paint amaryllis flowers. This flower signifies rebirth and the potential and resiliance of nature in the face of all odds…
Townsend Street Studio: 2000 – 2010
India: 2000
In 2000, Badgley Arnoux left her Bryant Street studio and moved into a studio on Townsend Street a few blocks away, which she shared with her sculpture/husband Harold Kozloff for the next decade…
Once Upon A Time: 2004 – 2008
At age three Elaine was given an illustrated version of Mother Goose Nursery Rhymes, which became the fundamental impetus and reference point for her socio-political world view….
Yosemite Avenue Studio: 2010 – Present
Recent Work: 2010 – 2016
Upon moving her studio to the BayView neighborhood, Badgley Arnoux continued her series of political and honoring works. Her portrait of Maya Angelou combines symbolism and 3-d. This potent work gives color to the writer’s life…
Recent Work: 2017-2022
Now in her 90s, Badgley Arnoux was full on with what was happening in the world. Her shock at the seige of the Caapital on January 6th 2020, prompted a large depiction of the events. As she would say, “Monumental”!