Twice a week, Elizabeth takes all-day art classes; the rest of the week, you’ll find her rendering landscapes and figure studies in acrylic paints. When she’s not painting, she’s sewing (she made the blue-and-white check pillow on the daybed, (p) for example). “My mother, who was also an artist, taught me how to sew and cook. I get as much creative satisfaction from those activities as I do from painting,” the Alabama-born artist says in her gentle drawl.

She also relishes flea marketing with friends, one of whom helped her decorate the studio. “We enjoy the hunting-and- gathering process. It’s fun to turn cast-off bits and pieces into something useful
or decorative.”

When the renovation was complete, she christened the space the Raised Cottage, “not just because it’s on the second floor, but because it raises my spirits whenever I walk through the door. It’s such an inspiring retreat.”

(q) “I love this shot!” Downs, Elizabeth, and Downs IV, age 10, relax on the porch. (r) A box of speckled robins’ eggs and a paperwhite bulb share space on her desk.

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