Ellen Hill was born in 1960 and grew up in Rocky Hill, New Jersey and Athens, Georgia. She spent much of her childhood exploring the surrounding forests and fields of north Georgia. Her elegant abstractions in wood and paint reflect her strong respect for nature.  Ellen Hill's artworks have been shown throughout the United States and abroad in Northern Ireland and Vietnam. Her works have been included in exhibitions in the Washington-Baltimore area at the Corcoran Gallery of Art (1997); University of Maryland, College Park (2001); Maryland Institute College of Art (2006); the Washington, DC City Hall Art Collection (2006); and the University
​of Maryland, University College (2013, 2014). Solo exhibitions include Montgomery College, Takoma Park, MD (2011); the Montpelier Cultural Art Center, Laurel, MD (2012); Steven Scott Gallery, Baltimore, MD (2014); the Academy Art Museum, Easton, MD (2015); the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD (2017); and Stevenson University, Owings Mills, MD (2017). A solo exhibition, "Natural Forces: Wood Paintings by Ellen Hill" was mounted by the Julio Fine Arts Gallery, Loyola University Maryland in Baltimore in September/October 2018.

Her works are in public collections including the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC; the Academy Art Museum, Easton, MD; the U.S. State Department; the D.C. Commission for the Arts and Humanities; Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University; and the University of Maryland University College, Adelphi, MD. Hill is the recipient of two Individual Artist Awards from the Maryland State Arts Council and a Grant to Individual Artists from the Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County. 

She has served as a resident printmaker at Pyramid Atlantic Art Center in Riverdale, MD, and as a resident artist at Hood College in Frederick, MD, and Montgomery College in Silver Spring, MD. She formerly taught two-dimensional design at Montgomery College, printmaking at Hood College, and drawing at the University of North Carolina. She received her MFA from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and her BA from Duke University. She lives with her husband in Rockville, MD.