Joseph McGurl, Massachusetts (b. 1958), "View From the Shore", Fort Independence? Boston Harbor Islands, oil on canvas, 24"H x 36"W(stretcher), 33 1/4"H x 45 1/4"W(frame)

Joseph McGurl Massachusetts (b. 1958) "View From the Shore", Fort Independence? Boston Harbor Islands oil on canvas Signed lower right. Exhibited: Tree's Place Gallery, MA Biography from Hammer Galleries: Joseph McGurl is one of those fortunate artists who found his vocation early and never looked back. Born in 1958, he grew up in Massachusetts in an artistic household, following in the footsteps of his father, James McGurl, an accomplished muralist. Joseph worked with his father while still a child and received his most important instruction from him, learning not only draftsmanship and color theory but also the essential skill of negotiating between preparatory studies and large scale finished works. He subsequently graduated from the Massachusetts College of Art and studied in England and Italy. McGurl has refined the skills learned in his youth and is applying them to landscape and seascape painting. He focuses on working process, which begins with investing endless hours creating plein air paintings he calls field studies, but which are in fact fully worked small oil paintings. They are the only information he brings back with him to the studio, where he selectively transforms some of these works to a larger scale. He comments, "I do not use photography because I feel it diminishes the artistic and intellectual experience of the intense observation and reinterpretation that I find so satisfying. My field studies painted on location are combined with my memory and imagination to form a framework for the larger studio pieces." McGurl's paintings have been included in several museum exhibitions in Massachusetts, New York, California and Rhode Island. He had retrospective solo shows at the Cape Museum of Fine Arts, The Cahoon Museum of American Art, and the Saint Botolph Club of Boston. He is a participant in the Sea to Shining Sea exhibition that will travel to twelve museums over a four- year period. Representing Representation, a survey of the most significant realist work being done today included his work in the 2001 show at the Arnot Art Museum, and he was one of the few artists invited to simultaneously exhibit at the concurrent Representing Representation West that showcased western art at the Rockwell Museum of Western Art. McGurl has been elected to the Guild of Boston Artists and is a Copley Master with the Copley Society of Boston. He has won top awards from both organizations including the John Singleton Copley Award for Artistic Achievement. He has also been the subject of numerous magazine articles and his work has appeared in many books. 24"H x 36"W(stretcher), 33 1/4"H x 45 1/4"W(frame)