Eleanor Kish

Eleanor Kish (March 17, 1924 – October 12, 2014), also known as Ely Kish, was an American-Canadian artist, best known for her paleoart depicting dinosaurs and other prehistoric life.

Early life and career Eleanor Kish was born in Newark, New Jersey on March 17, 1924. Her work eventually brought her to Canada and in 1960 she became a Canadian citizen. Kish received considerable attention in Canada for her wildlife art.

In the early 1990s, Kish was commissioned by the Smithsonian Institution to paint a great mural of extinct aquatic life, titled Life in the Ancient Seas. The project took two years and Kish considered it to have "made her career", earning her enough money to fund a studio for herself. Kish was one of the few paleoartists who in addition to restoring prehistoric life also used dinosaurs in art to comment on contemporary issues, among other things using them as tools to dramatize the threat of contemporary climate change. Kish was active in a time when the climate change was just beginning to be publicized; For life appearance, she often took inspiration from modern animals; before painting one of her murals depicting extinct aquatic life she for instance studied live fish and whales.

Personal life Kish was married to Huguette Vrancken. Her murals still decorate several museums. Most of her paintings are no longer on public display, though they remain in museum collections.