Elizabeth Coats, who was born in New Zealand in 1946, studied under the influential painter, Colin McCahon, at the Elam School of Fine Arts, University of Auckland (1968), before moving to Australia in 1974 and studying for a Diploma of Education (1977). In 1997 Coats graduated from the University of New South Wales with a Master of Fine Arts. One can isolate two over-riding influences in her work. Firstly, the formalist grid associated with Piet Mondrian, and secondly, her identification with feminism. In Coats's work, these seemingly disparate paths converge. Like the American artist Agnes Martin, Coats's abstract works resonate with the lyricism of her palette and handling.

In the early 1970s, representation and expression of gender through art was a pre-eminent concern for many artists and during this period Coats participated in feminist groups and activities in Sydney. In the mid 1980s, she established her palette of soft primary colours. Coats's drawings in watercolour evoke associations with music; there is a rhythm like a heart beating, which animates the otherwise delicate surface. Many of her drawings assert the primacy of the grid and reflect the artist's interest in Japan. In these works, marks conform to a pattern of horizontal, vertical, and diagonal. The medium of watercolour lends itself to Coats's delicate handling of surface and orchestration of the composition. She valorises the woven craft tradition of women's work and, in her works on paper, builds up dense patterning like stitches, using watercolour as if it were thread. The repetitive process of working in series is integral to Coats's practice, and small works on paper are sometimes worked up to a larger scale.