Gregory D. Steele was born in Morrison, Illinois in 1948. From 1st into his 4th year of school he attended a 2-room country school. It was there that he decided to become an artist when in 1st grade his teacher held up his drawing to show all 4 grades in the room how he had done the drawing. Gregory took 2 years of art in high school, and in jr. college he took a drawing class and a painting class.
When he was 19, he began his career as a cartoonist and ads layout artist for a newspaper. By 21 Gregory was working for an ad agency. From 1969 to 1981 he worked for 2 advertising agencies and General Electric as an artist. In February 1981 he began freelancing as an illustrator. During his commercial art career, he did work for John Deere, Nikon, Nissan, Subaru, Stroh's Yamaha, Proctor and Gamble, Kodak, and many others. The work Gregory did was illustration in pen & ink, wash, tempera, oil, acrylic, and computer. Since 1994 he has been painting full time working only in oil. Since then, he has had successful shows in Chicago, New York, Palm Beach, and Des Moines.
Steele's paintings are a mystical blend of light and shadow, impressionism and realism composed to draw the viewer into the painting. A common comment is that the viewers feel as though they could walk into the painting. He also quite often adds a surprise, a not at first noticed animal or an object left behind.
Steele's paintings are in many private as well as public collections worldwide.