Gregory Steele Biography

TECHNIQUE:

From a tranquil northern lake to the scenic hills of southwestern Wisconsin to a rising storm over an Iowa farm, Gregory Steele uses color and detail ( or even lack of detail) to create oil paintings with a depth that pulls you into the paintings. They make you feel as though you can walk through the painting to see what is on the other side of the hill or beyond the bend of the road.

IMAGERY:

Gregory is a Midwesterner who believes the Midwest offers a rich assortment of landscapes and people that deserve to be painted. His paintings often stir a memory of a place or an event in the life of the viewer.

HISTORY:

Greg was born and raised in a small western Illinois town twelve miles from the Mississippi River. He has lived in view of the river in Iowa since 1969. The river and the landscape near the river continues to be a major influence on his art and his desire to create it.

He became a professional artist at the age of 18 as a cartoonist, selling cartoons and political cartoons to newspapers in northwestern Illinois. From 1696 to 1981 he worked for advertising agencies and General Electric as an illustrator and designer.

In 1981 he became a freelance illustrator doing illustrations in various styles for companies such as John Deere, Nissan, Yamaha, BMW, Proctor and Gamble, Miller, etc. In 1992 he began dropping commercial clients to devote more time to his drive to create paintings.

Through the years he has been experimenting with various styles of art. In the 60's and 70's he was doing nonobjective and abstract paintings in oil or colored inks, 4' x 5' heads in acrylic, and silk-screens on aluminum. Landscape though has always been the image he has drifted back to. Through all of the styles he has used, his main objective has been to create a four dimensional image on a two dimensional plain.