William E. Elston: Biography
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William E. Elston was born on June 18, 1949 in Spirit Lake Idaho. He grew up in the rural area southeast of Spokane Washington in an area called Glenrose Prairie. He attended high school in Spokane at the newly built Joel E. Ferris High School. After leaving home at age 17 he traveled extensively; to San Francisco during the peak of the hippy era, then to Los Angeles, New York and Montreal, Quebec, where he finished high school studies at Baron Byng High School. He returned to the Pacific Northwest and studied painting at Fort Wright College of the Holy Names in Spokane, and at California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland. He earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from Fort Wright.
Mr. Elston then spent several years studying privately in New York and Boston. His first experience with landscape painting and drawing were done on a trip to Vancouver BC, Victoria BC and Seattle while he was still in high school. He continued painting landscape en plein air during his college years, and has made depicting the rural and urban landscape his principal area of interest. During those same years he developed a deep and abiding interest in the history of art, and especially in the social history of painting.
Mr. Elston has taught at Fort Wright College, The Spokane Art School, The Academy for Realist Art (now The Gage Academy,) the Frye Art Museum, the Seattle Art Museum, and has been a guest lecturer at Marymount Manhattan College in New York, Whitworth College in Spokane, Eastern Washington University in Cheney, University of Washington in Seattle, and The Gage Academy. He continues to teach ongoing plein air classes and workshops in Seattle and surrounding areas. Mr. Elston was an original founding member of the Northwest Figurative Artists Alliance, an organization that presented lectures and symposia on issues related to figurative art and Realism, sponsored ongoing roundtable discussions and periodic meetings amongst artists, published a bi-monthly journal of art criticism and review, networked with figurative artists worldwide and actively worked to promote the concerns of Realism and figuration. At its peak the organization had over 60 members. The Northwest Figurative Artists' Alliance has been recently revived with many of its original members, as well as a younger generation of figurative artists.
William E. Elston is represented in Seattle by Davidson Galleries, and in Spokane Washington by Irimi Art. His work has been widely collected in the United States and in Europe, and is included in many public, private and corporate collections. These include Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, McGraw Hill, American Express, Ashforth Pacific, Miller Nash LLP, Swedish Hospital in Seattle, University Hospital, Evergreen Hospital, Bill and Melinda Gates, the City of Seattle and the City of Portland.
He founded Suzumebachi Design Services (formerly webXdesign) in 1993, which designs gallery, artist and art-related websites, advises artists and arts professionals on their Internet presence and other matters in the digitial information field.
William Elston also trains regularly in Seido Juku Karate. He has sandan or third degree black belt ranking, promoting at the annual Seido Gasshuku retreat in upstate New York in 2011. He has participated in many tournaments, in New York and in Tokyo Japan. He is an instructor in Seido Karate for adult and youth classes at the Northshore YMCA in Bothell, WA, and an asistant instructor for children's classes at Dale Turner YMCA in Shoreline, WA. He is also the Seattle Seido Karate webmaster (http://www.seattleseido.org).
Mr. Elston has taught at Fort Wright College, The Spokane Art School, The Academy for Realist Art (now The Gage Academy,) the Frye Art Museum, the Seattle Art Museum, and has been a guest lecturer at Marymount Manhattan College in New York, Whitworth College in Spokane, Eastern Washington University in Cheney, University of Washington in Seattle, and The Gage Academy. He continues to teach ongoing plein air classes and workshops in Seattle and surrounding areas. Mr. Elston was an original founding member of the Northwest Figurative Artists Alliance, an organization that presented lectures and symposia on issues related to figurative art and Realism, sponsored ongoing roundtable discussions and periodic meetings amongst artists, published a bi-monthly journal of art criticism and review, networked with figurative artists worldwide and actively worked to promote the concerns of Realism and figuration. At its peak the organization had over 60 members. The Northwest Figurative Artists' Alliance has been recently revived with many of its original members, as well as a younger generation of figurative artists.
William E. Elston is represented in Seattle by Davidson Galleries, and in Spokane Washington by Irimi Art. His work has been widely collected in the United States and in Europe, and is included in many public, private and corporate collections. These include Microsoft, Hewlett Packard, McGraw Hill, American Express, Ashforth Pacific, Miller Nash LLP, Swedish Hospital in Seattle, University Hospital, Evergreen Hospital, Bill and Melinda Gates, the City of Seattle and the City of Portland.
He founded Suzumebachi Design Services (formerly webXdesign) in 1993, which designs gallery, artist and art-related websites, advises artists and arts professionals on their Internet presence and other matters in the digitial information field.
William Elston also trains regularly in Seido Juku Karate. He has sandan or third degree black belt ranking, promoting at the annual Seido Gasshuku retreat in upstate New York in 2011. He has participated in many tournaments, in New York and in Tokyo Japan. He is an instructor in Seido Karate for adult and youth classes at the Northshore YMCA in Bothell, WA, and an asistant instructor for children's classes at Dale Turner YMCA in Shoreline, WA. He is also the Seattle Seido Karate webmaster (http://www.seattleseido.org).