Elaine Klicker was born in Wisconsin and in her teens moved to Minnesota where she studied at the University of Minnesota for three years. In 1955, Elaine and her husband moved to Wyoming and eventually to Montana.

Elaine majored in art at the University of Montana, Billings, and studied with Hal Diteman and many other local artists. Although painting and drawing have always been a part of her life, Elaine became very involved in training, and competing with her Golden Retrievers in field trials during, the late sixties. It was during this period that she met and was inspired by a fellow field trialer and artist, Torn Quinn, of Point Reyes, California: a nationally known animal and wildlife artist. Her work has been shown for several years at the Geoffrey G. Smith Gallery, Billings, MT.

Spending more time painting than going to trials these days, the artist is still very involved with her Retrievers and has done numerous commisions of dogs, pets and people, in addition to her paintings of the Montana lifestyles and landscapes. Elaine, nationally known for her portraits, has been commissioned to do numerous portraits of dogs and people in the National Bird Dog Hall of Fame in Grand Junction, Tennessee, as featured on Ron Schara's Minnesota Bound television show on February 16, 1997.