Smith, was an early Arizona impressionist painter of desert landscapes, many of Cochise County and the Grand Canyon.

[3] She studied with California Impressionists in Oakland (1904),[4] with May Bradford Shockley in San Francisco (1908),[4] in Laguna Beach with Anna Althea Hills (1914) and also at the Stickney Memorial Art School in Pasadena with Jean Mannheim[5] and Richard E. Miller (1915–16).

She lived for 56 years in southern Arizona, first in Benson (1895–96), then in Pearce (from 1896 to 1941) and later in Douglas (from 1941 to 1951) in Cochise County, and seasonally in Morenci in Greenlee County at the home of her son Lewis A. Smith.

From January 11 to April 28, 2019, the Tucson Desert Art Museum presented a 150th birthday anniversary retrospective exhibit of E.A.

Smith's landscapes with 46 of her canvases on display from her most prolific years (1926–1949), including four of her renowned Grand Canyon paintings.