Painter & Creative Director

Paintings and Drawings

About

Artist Statement — Distance

When I reread my college transcript, I found classes I have no memory of taking. Friends tell me stories from those years that I can barely recall. My body was there and the work was done, but I am absent as its author. What remains is a memory I can’t trust.

I paint without a plan, reconstructing what is left: fragments of people, places and events, rebuilt through layering and scraping. A face surfaces, a presence rather than a particular person. Some faces are remembered and some are invented, and I often can’t tell which. Control gives in to chance, and the image arrives the way a memory does: reconstructed, distorted, and still convincing.

Distance here is physical and psychological: the space between what was once everything and what is left.

Black-and-white photo of Neal standing in his Dallas studio next to an easel holding a painting in progress — Neal in his Dallas Art Studio.

Bio

Greg Neal spent more than two decades as a creative executive working with major television networks and advertising agencies, in a career that stretched from Los Angeles to New York to San Francisco. His work helped launch, shape, and reinvent brands including HGTV, Food Network, Oprah Winfrey’s OWN, and Pac-12 Networks, with more recent work at Omnicom’s TMA.

Now based in Dallas, Neal has traded network brands for canvas, turning his creative energy toward painting and an ongoing exploration of abstraction, color, and the unexpected.

greg@gregneal.com · Vimeo

CV

GREG NEAL
Visual Artist / Creative Director / Media Executive
greg@gregneal.com · LinkedIn · Vimeo

Profile

Award-winning creative director and media executive with more than thirty years of experience launching and rebranding national television networks, and a painter working between figure and abstraction since 2019. Brings lifelong drawing, sustained independent study in art history and critical interpretation, and a record of mentoring creative teams to graduate study, with the aim of deepening a studio practice and teaching art and applied creative disciplines at the college level.

Education

1991The University of Texas at Austin, B.A., GovernmentBriefly an art major; studio coursework in Drawing I, Drawing II, 2D Design, and 3D Design (1988 to 1989). Art history coursework: ARH 301, Introduction to Visual Arts, and ARH 302, Ancient through Medieval Art (1988 to 1989).

Studio Art Practice

Painting since 2019, building on a lifelong habit of drawing. The work moves between figure and abstraction, with an emphasis on bold color, layered and scraped surfaces, and the tension between structure and spontaneity. Media include acrylic, oil, charcoal, and pastel on canvas, panel, and paper. Selected work includes the Face paintings (2020 to current) and recent pieces such as Echo (2026). Four paintings sold.

2026Resident Artist, Goldmark Cultural Center, Dallas, TexasStudio and rotating work on display

December 2026Open Studio Tour, Goldmark Cultural Center

Professional and Creative Experience

2025–presentSVP / Consultant, Envoy Media (Dr. Phil media platform), Dallas, TXDirect brand strategy and creative development across broadcast, streaming, FAST, podcast, and digital platforms.

2016–2023EVP, Content Studio, The Marketing Arm (Omnicom)Established and led a 65-person studio spanning design, direction, production, and editorial, delivering more than 1,000 video and social assets annually.

2013–2016VP, Marketing / Brand Creative, Didja, Los Altos, CADirected brand positioning, marketing, and launch communications for Clippit, an emerging digital television application.

2012–2013Chief Strategy Officer, Radley Studios, New York, NYCreated strategic pitches and creative campaigns for media clients including Discovery, National Geographic, and HGTV.

2012SVP, Marketing & Creative, Pac-12 Networks, San Francisco, CALed launch marketing and creative direction for a seven-network television platform, assembling teams across production, research, and audience development.

2011–2012VP, Creative, Veria LivingDirected creative for the launch of the first television network dedicated to alternative wellness.

2009–2011VP, Creative, Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN), Los Angeles, CAHelped establish the network’s creative department and directed consumer campaigns supporting brand development, programming launches, and audience engagement.

2007–2009Founder and Owner, Grayscale Creative, Los Angeles, CARan a creative agency producing graphics and video for entertainment brands, including the launch of MGM HD.

2002–2007VP, Creative, Scripps Networks (HGTV, Food Network, Fine Living)Directed brand development and marketing for national television networks, contributing to launches and major rebranding efforts, including the Food Network rebrand and the Fine Living launch.

2004–2005VP, Creative, Shop At Home (a Scripps division), Nashville, TNLed the network’s rebrand and set up its creative department.

2001–2002Creative Director, Fine Living (Scripps Networks), Los Angeles, CA

1998–2001Senior Creative Producer, Fox Family Channel

1994–1996Creative Producer, HGTV, Knoxville, TNJoined the network at launch as one of its first twenty employees.

1992–1994Producer, local television stations in Tyler, Austin, and Phoenix

Teaching and Academic Engagement

2011Texas State University, School of Mass CommunicationGuest speaker

2004Otis College of Art and Design, Los AngelesGuest speaker

2003Miami Ad School, AtlantaGuest speaker

Mentored more than fifty designers, producers, and emerging creative leaders while leading departments of up to 65 people.

Podcast Interviews

2023The Groove Podcast with Devin Pense, Episode 017: Greg NealHosted by Devin Pense. Released February 18, 2023.
Listen to the episode ↗

2021The DLC Drop PodcastVideo interview on YouTube. Released June 9, 2021.
Watch on YouTube ↗

Selected Honors and Awards

A selection from more than 70 national broadcast awards, 1994–2013.

2007Brandbuilder of the Year, Food NetworkMultichannel News; Broadcasting & Cable

2004Best Overall Package Design, Fine Living NetworkBroadcast Designers Association (BDA)

2004Gold, Package Design, Fine LivingTelly Awards

2003BMW Films / Fine Living PromotionBDA and Promax

2003Gold, Fine Living Launch IDsADDY Awards, St. Louis

1998Gold, Sony International TelevisionWorldFest Houston

1998Gold, Sony International Television / AXNNew York Festival

1998Bronze, Buffy the Vampire Slayer PromotionWorldFest Flagstaff

1996Gold, HGTV Launch CampaignCTAM

Other Professional Development

Omnicom University, 2019 to 2021, a two-year executive leadership program of Omnicom Creative and Business Executives in collaboration with Harvard Business School.

Graduate Study and Teaching Interests

Exploring where the recognizable begins to unravel; the relationship between structure and spontaneity; translating sound into image; the exchange between professional design and painting; college-level teaching in studio art, design, and visual communication.

Additional Art Education and Independent Study

Noncredit online courses and lecture series; no university credit or certificates earned.

2025Italian Renaissance Art History, Dr. Vida Hull, East Tennessee State UniversityOnline study of the Italian Renaissance and its artistic and historical context.

2026Teaching Critical Thinking Through Art, National Gallery of ArtStudy of observation, interpretation, and critical thinking through visual art.

2026The Elements of Drawing, Stephen Farthing, R.A., John Ruskin teaching collectionsEight practical drawing classes focused on foundational drawing principles.

2026Let This Be a Lesson: Heroes, Heroines, and Narrative in Paintings at Yale, John Walsh, Yale University Art GallerySemester-long lecture series examining narrative in paintings depicting history, myth, scripture, and literature.