Oil painter Stefan Elliott grew up at the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountain Range in Southern California. He knew he wanted to be an artist from the time his father taught him how to draw a circle free-hand at age 5. His first job however, was putting books away for $4.25 an hour at the public library. This quickly grew into a symbiotic relationship. Stefan had access to the books of the master painters of the past and the library soon promoted him from putting books away to painting murals for the children’s reading program. By the time he was in his early twenties he was receiving grants and commissions to paint large scale murals. Rather than go to art school, Stefan pedaled his bicycle through the United States and spent time surfing in Costa Rica while quietly honing his craft and selling pieces. Though he grew up influenced by the street art of Los Angeles, at the core his technique is traditional. His subject matter ranges from photorealistic landscape and portraiture to surrealism and abstraction depending on his audience and location. He now splits his time between Mt. Desert Island, Maine and Humboldt County, California where he shows and sells his work.
