Born in Martin County, Indiana, Floyd Hopper had a career that spanned six decades. He was a painter specializing in watercolor but also worked with oils. In addition he was a lithographer and teacher who lived in Indianapolis and Noblesville.

He studied at the John Herron Art School and at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and was a member of the Indiana Art Club. In 1933, he came under the regionalist painting influence of Thomas Hart Benton, a style he also learned to appreciate at the Herron School.

During World War II, he worked as a wood-pattern maker in the defense industry, and after the war, he helped found Noblesville Casting Company.

Among his illustration venues were the Hoosier Salon and the Kansas City Art Institute, and he also did some illustration including the cover of Carpenter's Magazine, 1958. That same year, he quit commercial art to devote himself full time to his painting.

Sources:
Peter Hastings Falk, Editor, Who Was Who in American Art
"Floyd D. Hopper, 1904-1984", May 2004 publicity sheet of the Brown County Art Guild