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Born in Canada, Elizabeth Armstrong first arrived in England in the 1870's with her mother, so that she could study art at the South Kensington Schools. Her artistic education was extensive and varied, with her studies taking her to New York and then on to Munich. For further inspiration, Elizabeth travelled to Brittany in 1882, followed by The Netherlands in 1884. The following year, in 1885, she arrived at Newlyn, Cornwall, where she met fellow artist, and her future husband, Stanhope Forbes (1857-1947).

Elizabeth spent the next two years at Newlyn, though in 1887, she stayed in St Ives for an extended period - much enjoying the more international group of artists that had converged there compared to Newlyn, where Stanhope and other predominantly British artists chose to make their base. Nonetheless, Forbes became an important female voice in both locations, with a fellow Newlyn artist, Norman Garstin (1847-1926), writing of her in an article: 'as an artist, she stands shoulder to shoulder with the very best; she has taste and fancy, without which she could not be an artist... The work which that wonderful left hand of hers finds to do, it does with a certainty that makes other work look tentative beside hers.' ('The Works of Stanhope Forbes, A.R.A.', The Studio, 15 July 1901, vol. 23, no. 100, p. 88).