Neil Shaw is a retired Monterey County, California, Forensic (police sketch) Artist and Deputy Sheriff with over 20 years experience. He spent over 10 years specializing in Forensic Art; hand-drawing criminal suspects from witness descriptions and forensic sculpting; fashioning clay over a human skull to form a likeness of the victim. He trained at Scottsdale Artists’ School and at the FBI Academy, in Quantico, Virginia where he studied forensic art and sculpture.    

Although this was a vital public service that Neil provided, and he was good at it, this art-form did little for him as a creative artistic outlet. From forensic drawing came Neil’s hidden talent of fine portraiture. It began when a news reporter saw one of Neil’s crime sketches and liked it enough to commission Neil for a portrait. Since then, Neil has done many portrait commissions to include a sizable commission by The Stokes Collection Art Gallery in Carmel, CA.

Neil and his wife, Doreen, began taking trips to Maui and Hawaii where they found their niche. Neil was so inspired by the island lifestyle, rich traditions and marine life that he began painting tropical scenes. Since then, Neil has left law enforcement and is now painting professionally.

In Neil’s earlier years, he was a Humane Officer with the SPCA of Monterey County where, among other duties, he performed cruelty investigations, wildlife and marine mammal rescue, at Monterey Bay. This gave him his appreciation and respect of these amazing creatures. His experience, respect and admiration for animal and marine life manifests itself in Neil’s very-unique bird and dolphin paintings. Neil Shaw’s off-beat imagination and unmistakable painting style creates an artistic fusion unseen anywhere else.

His paintings are also being shown in Maui at The Image Station Gallery in Kihei. Neil has recently been featured in Enjoy Magazine, a Northern California Lifestyle publication.