Steve launched his career as a freelance graphic artist in 1975. Over time, he developed his career with a focus on art direction and commercial, editorial, educational, and technical illustration. Steve's clients included Fortune 500 companies, national publications and many advertising agencies. His array of artwork included advertising, editorial illustrations, technical illustrations, textbook illustrations, book covers, type treatments, graphic design, and animation. He was one of the earliest adopters of computer graphics, exchanging pens, pencils and paint for pixels. He won three Jesse Neal awards for his technical illustrations.

By age 50, Steve had created thousands of drawings and pieces of art. He needed a change– something completely different. In 2003, Steve enrolled in nursing school at Molloy College, graduating in 2007 with his BSN. He spent his nursing career in the ICU and PACU of a well-known Long Island hospital. When he retired from that in 2017, he once again picked up a paintbrush. None of the art on these pages is digitally created or with the help of AI. Everything you see on these pages was created with paint, pencils, ink, paper and canvas.

No longer saddled with deadlines or specific assignments, Steve has been able to explore art on his own terms. The results are the detailed and inspired depictions of nature and people in everyday life. Using oils, acrylics, pen and ink, colored and graphite pencil, he has exhibited in group shows in Long Island, given lectures on mural painting , and taught art classes for adult learners at Long Island libraries. Steve has original art on permanent installation in three public buildings in Nassau County, N.Y. For Steve, art has been a lifelong passion and livelihood. Now, he looks forward to sharing his images with the world at large.

About Steve Hetzel

Studies for sky color and gravel for The Tourists.

Steve painting The Tourists.

You can see more of Steve's art by following him on Instagram @stevehetzel.art