A native of Washington, D.C., Ned Bittinger attended Landon School in Bethesda, Maryland, before leaving the area for Denison University in Ohio. He returned to D.C., however, to earn his Master’s of Fine Arts degree at George Washington University, and now lives in Rappahannock County, Virginia, with his wife, Mary. Bittinger is an award-winning painter of portraits, and his subjects have included James A. Baker and Lawrence Eagleburger for the State Department; Shirley MacLaine; Nancy M. Kissinger; and many leaders of the corporate, legal, medical, and diplomatic professions.
Bittinger also paints landscapes and figurative scenes, and his work reflects the influence of such great artists as John Singer Sargent, Ilya Repin, Valentin Serov, and N.C. Wyeth. His use of the “alla prima” technique, in which wet paint is skillfully manipulated, gives his brushwork and thus his paintings immediacy. It is this energy that makes his work particularly suited to illustration, and readers will remember his stunning paintings from Fran Manushkin’s The Matzah That Papa Brought Home, Eve Bunting’s The Blue and the Gray, and Mary Pope Osborne’s Rocking Horse Christmas.

AWARDS AND COMMISSIONS1993-97 Scholastic, Inc., illustrate children’s books
1996 Darden School Foundation of the University of Virginia – portrait of Colgate Darden
1994, 1995 U.S. State Department official portraits of James A. Baker II and Lawrence Eagleburger, Secretaries of State
1995 Benefactors portraits for Elon College, Burlington, North Carolina
1991 Selected as Exhibiting Artist in Moscow by Washington – Moscow Art Exchange
1989-88 Mural series for Montgomery County Public Schools
1988 Benefactors’ portraits for Gettysburg College, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
1986 Awarded grant by The Washington D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities
1982 Kreeger Awards Competition, Hayes Freedman Purchase Prize, Washington, D.C.
1981 David Lloyd Kreeger Award, The George Washington University, Washington, D.C.