Cecile Elstein made sculpture in South Africa before emigrating to London in 1961.  There she met the ceramist Catherine Yarrow and was her private pupil from 1965-9.

Living in London she took commissions for portrait bronzes.  Her portraits were exhibited at the Society for Portrait Sculptors in London in 1973. 1970-77 Cecile lived in Southampton, exhibiting sculpture, drawing and prints there and in London.

Between 1974-7 Cecile attended the BA sculpture course at West Surrey College of Art and Design. 1976 Scots Pine structure designed and built for physically disabled children at the Treloar School in Alton Surrey. Leaving the south of England in 1977 her family settled in Manchester, where she developed her lasting interest in screen printing and began a collaborative relationship with the master printer Kip Gresham. Her large screen prints are in collections in the U.K. South Africa, U.SA. 

In 1986 Cecile was the winner of the Sericol Colour Prize at the 9th British International Print Biennale in Bradford. 1991 'A Printmaking Partnership Cecile Elstein and Kip Gresham' exhibition was presented at the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester. This exhibition included other related sculpture, printsand drawings; inclusing 'Song of the Pine's Sun' carved in pitchpie. In 1996 she attained her MA at Manchester Metropolitan University. In 1997 she was included in a publication ' Exhibiting gender' by Sarah Hyde in which Cecile's large screen print titled 'One with Another' was compared with the soft ground etching 'David's pool at night' by Howard Hodgkin. 1997 Invited artist to exhibit at the Summer Sculpture Exhibition at the National Trust Wimpole Hall Gardens. Cecile Elstein was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in 1997.  Working as art director for video, Cecile co-produced the DVD 'Tangents, a mindscape in a landscape' 2004 with filmmaker and multimedia producer Maureen Kendal. In 2005 a commission for a portrait bronze of Michael Kennedy , writer and music critic has re-awakened her interest in portraiture that brings Cecile full circle.

2008 Work in progress - woodblock prints and wood carving.