Bill Elliott

Bill Elliott is among the world’s premier wildlife artists. His vivid paintings, full of action and light, capture the beauty of wild animals and fish. Elliott’s paintings and drawings have illustrated 38 books, including Datus C. Proper’s What the Trout Said and Stoneflies for the Angler by Eric Leiser and Robert H. Boyle. His work has appeared in numerous magazines, including Field & Stream, Outdoor Life and Sports Afield.

Elliott has joked that God displayed an “interesting” sense of humor by starting the young artist’s life in Brooklyn, New York. His urban surroundings did nothing to damper his love of wildlife, and by age 11 he had already made up his mind to be a wildlife artist. By 13 Elliott had taught himself to fly fish, traveling by train to fish the East Branch of the Croton River in the Hudson Valley – a river that would one day benefit greatly from Elliott’s conservation ethic. After his studies at the School of Visual Art in New York, he served in the U.S. Army, where postings in Alaska and New Mexico afforded him the opportunity to hunt, fish and serve as an illustrator.

Back in New York, Elliott designed advertisements for Macy’s and then became the Art Director at the Bronx Zoo.

Eventually, Elliott became a freelance artist, establishing friendships with Bernard “Lefty” Kreh, who first took him fishing for tarpon, and Eric Leiser, who introduced him to leading figures in the publishing world. Elliott’s trout lithographs at the Crossroads of Sport Gallery in New York began selling faster than he could produce them. When he relocated to the Hudson Valley, Elliott became active with Trout Unlimited and worked to enlist the support of local sportsmen’s clubs for reduced stocking and more restrictions on the East Branch of the Croton, which helped the river become one of New York State’s premier tailwater trout fisheries.

Elliott and his best friend and angling companion, James “Jed” Dempsey, made a highly significant contribution to the Catskill Center when Dempsey purchased legendary bamboo rodmaker Pinky Gillum’s milling machine and the two men transported it from Ohio for installation at the Center.

Elliott has traveled the world in pursuit of fish to catch and paint, including 38 trips to the Amazon between 1998 and 2008. In 1985, Elliott and his wife, Carol, moved from Chambersburg, Pennsylvania to Tequesta, Florida, where he continued his pursuit of saltwater fish, a passion ignited when he caught 63 tarpon on his first trip to Costa Rica with Lefty Kreh. He lives today in North Carolina, where he says his life has come full circle, back to catching and painting trout.