Six of One, Half Dozen of the Other, oil, 60 x 48”

Wildlife and landscape painter Stephen C. Elliott, father of prominent landscape artist Josh Elliott, died in October 2021 at his home outside Denver. He was 78 years old.

Elliott started his career Montana, not in the art field, but medicine, where he was an emergency room doctor. After ER shifts at hospitals where he served, Elliott would go home to paint watercolors of wildlife. After two decades as a physician, he retired from medicine to go into fine art full time. He quicky established himself within the art community in Billings, Montana, and was encouraged and influenced by artists such as Charles Fritz, Jim Poulsen, Loren Entz, Joyce Lee and Clyde Aspevig, who would teach Elliott the joys of painting outdoors.

After moving to Loveland, Colorado, Elliott immersed himself within another art community. “He excelled at drawing, a few lines speaking volumes to an animal’s character and gesture,” Josh says about his father. “He was interested in painting a variety of animals, from prairie dogs, antelope, bears and elk, to scarlet ibis and macaws. He often painted the quieter side of animals, a cow bison with her calf or a ptarmigan foraging for winter feed.”

He also spent a great amount of time in the Rocky Mountains, where he taught Josh to paint and to appreciate being outdoors. One of their first painting adventures together was a boat trip to islands around Sitka, Alaska. The Elliotts, who were celebrating Josh’s graduation, were there with distinguished company: Nancy Guzik, Sandy Scott and the late Richard Schmid. Claggett/Rey Gallery owner Bill Rey, who has represented both Elliott painters, recalls how the artists traded paintings out of appreciation of each other’s works. “Richard said he liked Steve’s fish painting and offered to trade. It wasn’t about money or the value of the painting—he just liked it and wanted to take it home. That’s how those artists were,” Rey says. “Steve fit right in because he was very intelligent. He could absolutely consume books. Not just devour the pictures, but the words too. Maybe it was his medical training, but he was incredibly smart and he really cared about people. He was the real deal.”

Although Elliott always enjoyed painting, his output decreased after the 2001 death of his oldest son, Nathan, to cancer. In the two decades since then, Elliott did some consulting work in the medical field, proving that no career ever truly goes away, and even though he didn’t show his art publicly, he never stopped painting. “He left behind stacks of drawings, watercolors, unfinished oils. He loved art and he never truly left it,” Josh says. “But he also knew what was important. He took art very seriously, but he never took himself too serious.” —

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