Art was mostly a hobby until Sill graduated from NC State, where he majored in wildlife biology. He couldn\u2019t find a job in the field in Franklin, N.C., where his father, also a talented watercolor artist, had opened a gallery. But, as it turns out, the younger Sill\u2019s specialty was what art collectors wanted. The nation was discovering wildlife art, Sill says. \u201cIt was like I was on this wave,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Massachusetts Audubon Society and other publishers came calling, seeking out his illustrations for calendars and field guides. The collection of more than two dozen children\u2019s books began in the 1990s, thanks to his wife, Cathryn Sill. She was a longtime kindergarten teacher who was frustrated she couldn\u2019t find picture books with realistic illustrations of birds. So she wrote one\u2009\u2014\u2009with birds as the subject of the first book\u2009\u2014\u2009and had her husband illustrate it. The latest book, About Habitats: Coral Reefs<\/em>, will come out in July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The accurate portrayal of the natural world has long been Sill\u2019s calling card\u2009\u2014\u2009an ability that he credits, in part, to his NC State education. \u201cWhat they gave me was such a broad base of biological knowledge,\u201d says Sill, 76, who still lives in Franklin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe sooner a child can learn to appreciate what\u2019s around them, the better our Earth is going to be.\u201d That expertise has led him to donate some of his work to support conservation organizations. But the books he and his wife have created, some translated into Spanish and Korean, may have the longest lasting impact, especially if the lessons stick with young readers. \u201cThe sooner a child can learn to appreciate what\u2019s around them,\u201d he says, \u201cthe better our Earth is going to be.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false,"raw":"\n\n\n\n\n Flip through About Habitats: Coral Reefs<\/em>, the most recent in a series of award-winning nonfiction picture books, and readers will see the watercolor paintings of wildlife artist John Sill \u201970. The subject of the book is colorful coral reefs from across the globe, but the earliest inspirations for his career began in his aunts\u2019 backyard in St. Pauls, N.C. There, Sill spent long days as a boy exploring. \u201cIt was a small piece of habitat,\u201d he says, \u201cbut it seemed pretty big to us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Art was mostly a hobby until Sill graduated from NC State, where he majored in wildlife biology. He couldn\u2019t find a job in the field in Franklin, N.C., where his father, also a talented watercolor artist, had opened a gallery. But, as it turns out, the younger Sill\u2019s specialty was what art collectors wanted. The nation was discovering wildlife art, Sill says. \u201cIt was like I was on this wave,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Massachusetts Audubon Society and other publishers came calling, seeking out his illustrations for calendars and field guides. The collection of more than two dozen children\u2019s books began in the 1990s, thanks to his wife, Cathryn Sill. She was a longtime kindergarten teacher who was frustrated she couldn\u2019t find picture books with realistic illustrations of birds. So she wrote one\u2009\u2014\u2009with birds as the subject of the first book\u2009\u2014\u2009and had her husband illustrate it. The latest book, About Habitats: Coral Reefs<\/em>, will come out in July.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The accurate portrayal of the natural world has long been Sill\u2019s calling card\u2009\u2014\u2009an ability that he credits, in part, to his NC State education. \u201cWhat they gave me was such a broad base of biological knowledge,\u201d says Sill, 76, who still lives in Franklin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe sooner a child can learn to appreciate what\u2019s around them, the better our Earth is going to be.\u201d That expertise has led him to donate some of his work to support conservation organizations. But the books he and his wife have created, some translated into Spanish and Korean, may have the longest lasting impact, especially if the lessons stick with young readers. \u201cThe sooner a child can learn to appreciate what\u2019s around them,\u201d he says, \u201cthe better our Earth is going to be.\u201d<\/p>\n"},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The paintings of John Sill \u201970 bring the natural world to young readers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"views\/single-immersive.blade.php","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"source":"","ncst_custom_author":"","ncst_show_custom_author":false,"ncst_dynamicHeaderBlockName":"ncst\/default-immersive-post-header","ncst_dynamicHeaderData":"{\"backgroundColor\":\"red_400\",\"displayCategoryID\":10,\"showAuthor\":true,\"showDate\":true,\"showFeaturedVideo\":false,\"subtitle\":\"The paintings of John Sill \u201970 bring the natural world to young readers.\"}","ncst_content_audit_freq":"","ncst_content_audit_date":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10,8,9],"tags":[1425,1423,269,1424,1426,1042],"_ncst_magazine_issue":[],"class_list":["post-5499","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-class-act","category-newswire","category-stories","tag-about-habitats-coral-reefs","tag-cathryn-sill","tag-college-of-agriculture-and-life-sciences","tag-john-sill","tag-massachusetts-audubon-society","tag-sarah-lindenfeld-hall"],"displayCategory":{"term_id":10,"name":"Class Act","slug":"class-act","term_group":0,"term_taxonomy_id":10,"taxonomy":"category","description":"","parent":0,"count":61,"filter":"raw"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5499"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5499"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5555,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5499\/revisions\/5555"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5499"},{"taxonomy":"_ncst_magazine_issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/_ncst_magazine_issue?post=5499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/magazine.ncsu.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/Coral-Reefs_rgb.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\u2014John Sill \u201970<\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\nBy Sarah Lindenfeld Hall<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\u2014John Sill \u201970<\/p><\/div><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n