[1] Her parents were Harriet and Charles Harper, and her family life was unstable due to abuse by her father.
When she was a teenager she became a portrait painter, and received a two year scholarship to Chouinard Art Institute.
[7][6][8] In 1975, she married Gilles Arnoux and they moved to his hometown of Biot, Alpes-Maritimes, France for three years.
[6][9][10] When she returned to San Francisco, she opened the Elaine Badgley Arnoux School of Art for a few years.
[6] She was the subject of the documentary film, Shadow and Light: The life and Art of Elaine Badgley Arnoux (2011) by director William Farley.