Today we’d like to introduce you to Terry Steele.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
When I was a young boy, my parents use to take us to the Utah State fair every year. There was an artist who used to set in one of the courtyards painting. His name was Matt Madsen. I was impressed by the way he could take a blank piece of masonite and paint on it. I was amazed that someone could take paint and brush and create something so beautiful.
Having always loved nature and the natural world I decided that I wanted to paint so I could capture all of the nature I loved. I convinced my Mother to buy me some paints and so I started using them trying to capture what I saw in nature. I was always looking at things. How sunlight would filter through the tree’s and light up the landscape. Loved seeing Deer, Elk and other wildlife and was in awe of the beauty around me. So with paints in hand I would paint and paint and try to capture on canvas what I was seeing but I was just not very good at it. I came from a large family, 9 siblings, so paying for art lesson’s were out of the question. I would practice and practice. I would watch every program on TV that featured artists and I would study how they were painting.
Over the years, and after many ruined paintings, I started to notice that my paintings were starting to look good. Today I am still not totally satisfied with my artwork but having great response from collectors I guess I have got better.
A few years ago my son Daniel convinced me to open up an Instagram account and place my paintings on it. I have enjoyed very good success selling my paintings. My daughter Stacey started me up a Etsy shop and I have sold a number of paintings on it in the last couple of months. I in fact got a “Star Seller” notice from Etsy for the month of July.
Can you talk to us about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way? Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
It has been a struggle trying to learn all of the painting techniques that would help me become a better artist. Raising a young family with little kids was a challenge also. I did not have time or the money to take professional art lesson’s. I am self taught except for watching painting demonstrations live or on line. One of the lesson’s I have learned is that you can’t give up if you want to paint or do anything for that matter. They say that practice practice makes perfect but I am not sure about that. I think it just brings better results.
My wife and I had 10 children. Raising and family, especially one the size of ours, is not only rewarding but very challenging also. I remember that I was doing a large painting of a Whitetail buck running through a swamp. It was turning out very good and I was so looking forward to finishing it. I came home from work and walked into the room where I had my easel set up and noticed BLACK paint all over the painting. One of my kids decided to help me paint and destroyed the painting. I was using oil paints at this time and was unsure how to remove the paint so the entire mess went into the garbage can. This was not the first time this had happened so I gathered up all of my painting supplies and they went into the garbage can also.
My wife, being the smarter of us, removed everything, except the ruined painting, and took them back into the house. I did not paint for a very long time and eventually took it up again but this time I tried Acrylic paint. I loved the fast drying time which helped me with my impatience.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am an wildlife and landscape artist. I use Acrylic paints to paint. I specialize in wildlife and landscape art. I am known for my wildlife art more than my landscape art but I have been successful with both. I was contacted, out of the blue, by “icanvas” They are a online company that puts paintings and photo’s onto canvas at customers requests. I have 23 paintings on their website that collectors can order prints of. The employee of icanvas told me that he seen my paintings on my Instagram page and really liked them, especially my Elk paintings. I now have original paintings in 14 different states.
I am proud that I have stuck to my roots, loving nature and being true to my artwork. I am not sure that I am set apart from other wildlife and landscape artists we each have our own style.
Pricing:
- Size of painting
- Subject sometimes
- $1.25 per square inch
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.etsy.com/shop/TKSteeleFineArt
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/t.k.steelefineart?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TerryKSteele
