FORT PIERCE FOLKS
Steel, who loves the complexity of using watercolors, typically paints
about life on or in the water. He has traveled the eastern U.S. seaboard
45
“When I was a boy, I couldn’t stop drawing and sketching,
and I’ve never stopped,” he says.
Architecture came next, when Steel studied it at Pennsylvania
State University. After graduation, he did what came
naturally to someone who fell in love with the sea as a child:
He took a commission in the Navy and went to sea. Those
voyages took him to the South Pacific and the Orient, where
he studied not only the art but the landscapes. After returning
to the states, he continued to study painting while completing
a master’s degree in architecture from the University
of California at Berkeley.
LOVE OF THE SEA
Steel paints in both watercolor and oil. His paintings reflect
a lifelong love of the sea and the people whose lives are
affected by it. He remembers how he and his fellow summer
campers were caught in a storm as they sailed on the
Chesapeake Bay. “This was an unforgettable experience that
>>
to capture scenes that are typical to fishing communities.