Nashville Arts Magazine

My Favorite Painting | Michael Shane Neal’s Inspired by Vista

I’m obviously partial to this painting, as the subject is my wife, Lisa. The painting was done on a Cumberland Society painting trip to Monhegan Island, Maine. I am especially amazed at how Michael Shane Neal captured the very essence of her with so few brush strokes and without even showing her face!

Michael Shane

Michael Shane Neal is among the most sought-after young portrait artists in America today. He recently completed portraits of such luminaries as Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, former Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham, U.S. Senator Arlen Specter, U.S. Senator Robert C. Byrd, and Federal Chief Judge Anthony Scirica.

Neal was listed among 20 contemporary artists “On the Rise” in The Artist’s Magazine’s annual survey in 2004. His unique, sensitive, and insightful paintings display a commitment to portraying not just the outer likeness of his subjects, but their character and personality as well. A self-described “people person,” Neal enthusiastically shares his excitement for interpreting his clients on canvas in a traditional yet painterly style.

A protégé of the nation’s leading artist and presidential portraitist Everett Raymond Kinstler (a second-generation student of John Singer Sargent), Neal exhibited alongside Kinstler in a 2003 show entitled Realism Now: Mentors and Protégés at the Vose Galleries in Boston, Massachusetts. Neal is the Grand Prize winner of the 2001 Portrait Society of America International Portrait Competition. In 2004, he received The Artist’s Magazine Award of Excellence at the Oil Painters of America National Exhibition. He recently received the Catherine Lorillard Wolfe Award from the National Arts Club and the Tara Fredrix Award from the Audubon Artists of America, both for landscape.

Recently selected as a participant in the Leadership Nashville class of 2010, Neal is a member of the Exchange Club of

Nashville and an active member of his church. He enjoys community outreach projects, golf, plein-air landscape painting, and reading, with a particular interest in history. With his wife and two children, Neal resides near his studio located minutes from downtown Nashville.