Stephen Morgan Etnier was born in York, Pennsylvania. He enrolled in classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of Arts before studying privately with Rockwell Kent (1882-1971) and John Carroll. After serving as an officer in the U.S. Navy in World War II, Etnier travelled extensively – he earned his pilot’s license, owned a single-engine plane, and was an avid sailor. He visited the Caribbean, Europe, and the West Indies in addition to several locales along the eastern seaboard. In the 1930s he established residency in South Harpswell, Maine. His career lasted for nearly six decades, and while his subjects vary from sailboats to rural farmhouses to commercialized American towns, his paintings consistently feature a remarkable devotion to natural light.