Welcome to NiloSantiago.com

Nilo was the youngest in a family of ten children. He attended the University of Santo Tomas in Manila where he earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with a major in painting and a minor in design. Nilo immigrated to the United States in 1964 and attended graduate studies at Howard University in Washington, DC. He worked as a designer and illustrator for a number of design studios in Washington, DC.

Nilo entered the Federal Service after the United States Air Force Graphics at the Pentagon offered him a position as an illustrator. After three years with the US Air Force, Navy Graphics at the Pentagon offered him a promotion to work for their graphics shop where he worked for eight years.

In 1987, Air Force Graphics offered Nilo a great position to return to work for the Air Force. He became the official Artist of the US Air Force, a position that he held for 18 years. His responsibility as a Visual Information Specialist (Special Projects) was to create paintings for the Air Force. He painted Aviation arts, murals, portraits of military personnel, activities and anything that was Air Force mission related. His paintings were used for posters, brochure covers, record album covers, book illustrations and other printed materials. The Air Force flew Nilo to Air Force installations all over the United States and abroad to gather materials for his paintings. He flew in most of the aircraft in the Air Force inventory to experience first hand the capabilities of each plane and record the experience in his paintings.

His paintings are on exhibit at the Pentagon and Air Force installations all over the world. All of his paintings during this time period were entered into the Air Force Art Collection and altogether exceeded 200 paintings.

Nilo retired from Federal Service in January 2003 after 26+ years and received an Outstanding Civilian Career Service Award and Medal. Nilo was the recipient of numerous awards, most recently the DAKILA Achievment Award for Arts and Culture from the Philippine American Foundation for Charities, Inc for 2005.

Nilo is affiliated with numerous art organizations and his paintings are in private and public collections around the globe.