Stephen McMillan was first introduced to etching at UC-Santa Cruz, in 1969. Since 1975, he has focused on creating aquatint etchings of wilderness landscapes, drawn freehand from photographs he has taken.
From 1975 to 1979 he worked at the Graphic Arts Workshop in San Francisco. For most of the years 1979 to 1992, he was an artist-in-residence at Kala Art Institute, where he taught classes in printmaking. He now lives in Bellingham, WA.