Her paintings are usually occupied by sensitively rendered and coloured images of people. As a Jewish artist, she has also used her work to comment on the atrocities of the Holocaust resulting in the exhibition of her paintings at the Holocaust Education Centre in Vancouver, BC.

Commenting on her work Serota said, "My painting is my discovery of my reality as it unfolds. My subject matter has often been an exploration of both personal and collective memory. Recently, my paintings are emerging from a more ‘intuitive’ place. My commitment now is to follow that journey.”

About this image: This painting is a whimsical documentation of a "Painters' Day", which was organized by prominent gallery owner Paul Kyle in 1981. Kyle invited some of the best-known local artists to spend a day at "the Point", Michael Williams' home. Phyllis Serota said that at that time she felt "totally intimidated" by the other artists like Jack Shadbolt and Toni Onley, but Kyle had invited her to come. Onley actually arrived at the house in a float plane from Vancouver carrying a Renoir for Kyle. Serota said "I couldn't work too well there. I just did some sketches of people, but realized the next day that I was the only figurative artist there, so I took those sketches and started on 'Painters' Day'." Kyle then used her image for the invitation to the exhibit that displayed the works all the painters had done at the Point that day. This event was the beginning of what became Victoria's Moss Street Paint-In, an annual event that celebrates local artists.