Lives and paints in a remodeled cottage in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. The rooms once occupied by her four children are now transformed into studios filled with paintings. Her seven gardens beside the Bay of Fundy serve as inspiration for the flower and landscape paintings. The Saint John String Quartet and Symphony New Brunswick rehearsals and concerts are her sources for the musician drawings and paintings.
In fact, many of these musicians have posed for portraits: this is in addition to commissioned portraits and studies that span almost sixty years.
Born Margaret Jean Ellis in Prince Edward Island, Canada, in 1935, Peggy studied fine art at Mount Allison University and later took Child Study at University of Toronto.
She married in Toronto and had two children there before going to the United Kingdom for five years where two more children were born. She returned to Canada with her children to work at the new Confederation Center which her mother initiated in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. In 1965, she moved to Saint John, New Brunswick, to take a teaching job. She was also involved in day care, heritage of the old city, volunteering at the Seafarer's Mission and currently assists at a local food bank. In 1978 she became a born-again Christian and is actively involved in church work.
She has travelled to Egypt, Israel, Cuba, Belgium and China as well as to other parts of Canada where she has had many opportunities to paint.