The award-winning painter, Gregory Manchess, has created work for covers and feature stories of National Geographic Magazine, Time, Atlantic Monthly, and The Smithsonian. The National Geographic Society sent Manchess on expedition, and chose his work to illustrate the adventures of the first discovery of an actual pirate ship for the traveling exhibition, Real Pirates: The Untold Story of The Whydah, from Slave Ship to Pirate Ship.
His figure and portrait work has led to numerous commissions for stamps by the US Postal Service, including the Oregon Statehood Stamp, The 1963 March On Washington Stamp, Mark Twain Stamp, Exploring the Great Outdoors Series, Snowy Beauty, and the 2023 Christmas stamp, Snow Globes.
His large portrait of Abraham Lincoln and seven major paintings of key moments from Lincoln’s life are highlighted in the Abraham Lincoln Memorial Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois.
The Coen Brothers showcased Gregory’s work in their latest film, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.
Manchess wrote and illustrated his first ‘widescreen novel’ Above the Timberline, released in 2017 to stellar reviews. Thirty of the 120+ paintings from the book were a featured exhibition at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Massachusetts.
As playwright, The Forest Roberts Theater on the campus of the University of Northern Michigan premiered his stage play of Above the Timberline in Autumn, 2021. The production took fourteen national awards as a finalist for the annual American College Theater Awards at the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC.
Widely awarded within the industry, his peers at the Society of Illustrators in New York presented him with their highest honor for career achievement, the coveted Hamilton King Award, in 1999. Manchess is included in historian Walt Reed’s edition of The Illustrator in America, 1860-2000, and recently inducted in Marquis’ Who’s Who in America.
Currently, Gregory has designed the latest mission patches for NASA’s Dragon Crews 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, and 8, plus the Expedition patch for the 67th Mission to the International Space Station.
He just completed work on several lavish editions, The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemmingway, The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde, and DUNE by Frank Herbert. He’s working on a special edition of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, to be released in 2024.
Today, Gregory lectures at universities and colleges nationwide and gives workshops in painting at the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, MA, and The Atelier in Minneapolis. He teaches at the Illustration Master Class in Savannah, GA and online with SmArt School.
manchess@mac.com
ph: 503.784.7852