ARTIST | CRAFTSMAN | MUSEUM PROFESSIONAL

Greg Shea is an award-winning artist and craftsman with diverse creative interests including drawing and painting, digital and wet-plate collodion photography, portraiture, illustration, relief printmaking, sculpture, calligraphy and illuminating, woodworking and custom furniture building, antique frame restoration, bookbinding, carving, jewelry making and silversmithing, and many others. Born in 1971 in Schenectady, New York, he has lived in Connecticut since 1994. Early in life, he studied engineering, robotics, architectural drawing and drafting before deciding to pursue a career in art. He earned a BFA degree in Illustration from Syracuse University ('94), with minor studies in Metalsmithing and Medieval Studies.

For nearly thirty years, Greg has worked at the Yale Center for British Art in New Haven, CT, where he is the Senior Museum Preparator. This has allowed him to utilize many of his skills and talents, constantly fueling his interests in the visual arts, art history, natural history, design and fabrication, conservation, engineering, restoration, and collecting. As Senior Preparator, he has been responsible for the safe handling and attractive display of countless objects, including priceless paintings and sculptures, works on paper, rare books, and other artifacts ranging from Catherine the Great's crown jewels, to Charles Darwin's collection of pigeon skulls. He is also responsible for most of the object mount making, and fabrication related to exhibitions. Greg has taught adult classes and workshops at the museum and elsewhere on landscape watercolor painting in the English style, and relief printmaking, as well as perspective drawing for children, and private art lessons.

Greg's artwork has been accepted into numerous local and national juried exhibitions, winning several awards and purchase prizes. His work has been exhibited widely at museums and galleries throughout the U.S. including The Society of Illustrators New York, The Delaware Art Museum, The Norman Rockwell Museum, The Museum of Western Art, The Baseball Hall of Fame Museum, The Yale Center for British Art, The Fairfield Museum and History Center, the Art League of New Britain, and many others. In 2016, Greg's work was accepted into the Art Renewal Center's 12th Annual Salon, "The most prestigious realist art competition in the Americas and perhaps the world."

Greg is an active member, a past President, and currently the Curator of the Permanent Collection for The New Haven Paint & Clay Club. He also served on the board of the Art League of New Britain for several years. Please check back on this site from time to time to see new works, as they are finished and added. 

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