Printmaker Thomas Robert Seawell was born in Baltimore, Maryland, on March 17, 1936. He received his art education at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and Texas Christian University, focusing on printmaking, and in 1963 he was offered a position at SUNY Oswego, New York, to establish a printmaking department there.

Seawall was particularly known for his use of collagraph and silkscreen techniques, and is considered a pioneer and advocate of the collagraph medium. He created several series in the mediums, including Family Album, States and Provinces, The Streets, Empty Centers, Variations on Themes of Jacques Callot, the Art Doors Project, and more. He taught at Henderson State University, AK, and Texas A&M University-Commerce, TX.

His work can be found in the collections of the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution, the National Collection of Fine Arts, the New York Public Library, the Cleveland Museum of Fine Art, the Califonia Legion of Honor, the Philadelphia Museum of Fine Art, the Gemeente Museum Van Schone Kunsten (Belgium), the Pushkin Museum (Moscow), the British Museum (London), and is archived at the Artist Printmaker Research Collection at Texas Tech University.

Thomas Robert Seawell died in Sterling, New York, on August 28, 2015.