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Virgil Elliott | |
 Born 1944 in St. Louis, Missouri,
Virgil Elliott began his art training at age 20 months with his mother,
Dollye McAlister Elliott. Virgil trained from 1946-1965 with a succession
of excellent instructors, including the illustrators Robert Fawcett, Albert
Dorne and Harold Von Schmidt.An accomplished draftsman and competent painter by age 21, Elliott attended a number of colleges and universities, including Washington University School of Fine Art, University of Missouri at Kansas City and University of Missouri at St. Louis, all of which tried unsuccessfully to dissuade him from painting and drawing realistically and from pursuing a higher degree of mastery. From 1968 onward, Elliott undertook to educate himself in the more advanced oil painting techniques, as he was unable to find instructors whose abilities surpassed his own. His self-directed study took him through art museums across the United States and Europe, to analyze with his own eyes the works of the Great Masters. He sought out written information in old books wherever he could find them, all the while drawing, painting and experimenting constantly. Clues as to the painting techniques of the Old Masters were found in the writings of Sir Charles Locke Eastlake, Richard Lack, Jacques Maroger, Giorgio Vasari, Cennino Cennini, Leonardo da Vinci, A.P. Laurie, Max Doerner, Harold Speed, Daniel V. Thompson and many others, all of which were studied diligently over many years along with a great deal of practice. During his years of study between 1966 and 1982 he earned his living variously as an iron worker, laborer, commercial artist, motorcycle engineer, musician, soil tester and music teacher; all of which he feels have contributed to his art by providing a wide range of experiences from which to draw. As a mature artist, Virgil Elliott has received many awards and special honors, including certification by the American Portrait Society (1985), an honor bestowed on only 24 artists worldwide; election in 1996 to Associate Guild Member by the American Society of Classical Realism, and was made a Signature Member of the American Society of Portrait Artists in 1996. As a member of the Artists' Advisory Panel to the California State Fair in 1987, he spearheaded a successful effort to open the State Fair's art show, "California Works," to representational art for the first time in decades, and to depose the parties responsible for its exclusion prior to that time. His services as an instructor, art show judge and speaker have been in demand since 1982, when he began exhibiting his work publicly. In recent years he has painted several members of the Schlumberger family, various government officials and many others, and has written articles on advanced oil painting techniques for art magazines such as The Portrait Signature (Spring, 1997, "The Techniques of William Bouguereau", and a book review of "Bouguereau," a new book by Fronia E. Wissman; "The Innovations of Rembrandt," to be published in Winter '98-'99), and The Artist's Magazine (article on dramatic lighting, to be published in 1999). Virgil Elliott taught oil painting at the College of Marin in 1996 and 1997, and continues to teach privately at his own atelier on the grounds of the Eagle Ridge Winery, in Penngrove, California, in addition to painting figurative works, portraits, still lifes and landscapes, and writing. Memberships, Past and Present  American Society of Classical Realism (Associate Guild Member) American Portrait Society American Society of Portrait Artists (Signature Member) American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) California State Fair Artists' Advisory Panel Society of Western Artists Board of Directors American Artists Professional League Artists in Mensa Gallery Affiliations, Past and Present Jones & Terwilliger Gallery, Carmel, California Haakman Gallery, Palm Springs, California National Heritage Gallery, Beverly Hills, California Schlumberger Gallery, Santa Rosa, California Branscomb's Gallery, Bodega Bay, California Maiden Lane Gallery, San Francisco, California Publications The Artist's Magazine, December, 1996 The Portrait Signature, Spring, 1997 The California Art Review, a Survey of Leading Contemporaries Directory of American Portrait Artists Exhibits — One-man Show, Loanna Clark Gallery, Petaluma, CA 1994 — Degas Pastel Society Fourth National Exhibition, Museum of the Americas, New Orleans, LA, 1992 — Lauren Rogers Museum of Art, Lauren, MS 1993 — Meadows Museum of Art, Shreveport, LA, 1993 — Invitational Show, Sacramento Fine Arts Center, Sacramento, CA, with Robert K. Semans and Anita Wolfe, 1986 — One-man Show, California Museum of Art, Santa Rosa, CA — Barbary Coast Gallery, San Francisco, CA, 1982, with Kelly Smith and David Mann |
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