Ettinger began his art career as a commercial artist, illustrating for leading publications and a variety of advertisers. He drew celebrity figures in the world of art and politics as a staff artist with the New York Sunday World. During the 1940’s he worked as an art director for Pine Publications, a leading publisher of pulp magazines. An avid outdoorsman, Ettinger was commissioned by top sporting magazines to produce “covers” using his oil paintings. Additionally, Ettinger illustrated Derrydale’s The Happy End [1939], written by the great American novelist Ben Ames Williams, with nine sketches of fishing and hunting reminiscences.

In the early 1950’s Ettinger settled in Weston, Vermont where he etched and painted outdoor scenes. He attained prominence as a professional artist with subjects of angling, gun dogs in the field, skiing, waterfowl hunting and wildlife. Ettinger’s drypoint prints captured his passion for the outdoors. More than 180 images where produced during his lifetime using the intaglio printmaking process. Most of his early etchings (1934-1952) were published by the Associated American Artists. Churchill Ettinger’s work can be found in the permanent collections of the Boston Public Library, Dartmouth College, Ford Foundation, Fred Jones Junior Museum of Art, Iowa State College, Library of Congress, Museum of Art and Archeology, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, University of Hawaii, Wesleyan University, William Rockhill Nelson Gallery of Art and Yale University. The quintessential artist, Ettinger was producing artwork until his death in 1984 in Vermont. Sources include: Peter Falk, Who Was Who in American Art Gary Temple, The Meadowlark Gallery, Inc., Biography Library Ettinger, Personal Interview Written by Curtis Tierney; editorial assistance by Tom Ettinger. Biography from AskArt