After attending Vogeler's Higher Daughter School in Berlin-Steglitz, Genest-Arndt studied with Adolf Schlabitz , Conrad Fehr and Hans Licht at the Academy of Arts in Berlin . She painted impressionist landscape paintings and still lifes . Not all of her paintings are cataloged.
She took part in several art exhibitions in Berlin, for example the Great Berlin Art Exhibitions from 1907 to 1913 and 1928. In the 1920s, Genest-Arndt moved several times to Berlin. She had several studios , including one in Berlin-Mitte on Gendarmenmarkt, another across from Fischerinsel, and one in Hermannstrasse on Wannsee in the vicinity of Villa Liebermann. She made many trips to the Baltic Sea, to Graal-Müritz , Ahrenshoop , Rügen, and in Thuringia. After the war Elsa Genest-Arndt moved to the Tegernsee. There she continued her artistic activity into old age.
