Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller
1 of 3

Joseph McGurl
"View from Coatue, Lifting Fog, Afternoon Sun" Nantucket by Joseph McGurl

2025

$32,000
£23,919.90
€27,945.55
CA$45,015.59
A$45,559.24
CHF 26,122.41
MX$552,576.76
NOK 303,793.08
SEK 309,232.01
DKK 208,903.08

About the Item

Signed lower right American, b. 1958 Designated a living master by the Art Renewal Center and widely regarded as a leader of the American landscape school, Joseph McGurl is one of the most important realist painters today. McGurl works almost exclusively with oil paint, capturing marine and landscape scenes in his native New England as well as other areas of the Eastern US. Along with his childhood as a muralist’s son, McGurl’s days as a sailor and his studies under Robert Cormier both informed and inspired McGurl’s work on his subject matter. McGurl’s style is a modern extension of the 19th Century Luminist school and is illuminated by a fascination for the interplay of light and coloured by a knowledge of physics. It is this focus that drives McGurl to work exclusively in the rare method of en plein air painting rather than relying on photography. ARTIST’S STATEMENT: As a realist, I work in a sphere which must function on several different levels simultaneously. Although I have a deep personal connection to the landscape, it is also a vehicle to explore my interest in modern physics, spirituality, and the exploration of light, form, space, and color interpreted with paint. The slice of reality that man is capable of experiencing and the higher reality that permeates time and space is my true subject. My artistic influences began during my youth. The luminist paintings I walked past on the way to art classes at the Boston M.F.A. formed part of my cultural identity. Because of the Transcendentalists’ influence on these painters, I became intrigued with the Transcendentalist belief that nature and light in particular were spirituality symbolic. As a landscape painter who interprets light, I also developed an interest in the study of modern physics. Coincidentally, as well as signifying spirituality, the particle that gives us light, the photon, is a primary vehicle for physicists to better understand the workings of the universe. My interests in the physical and spiritual implications of light are some of the many reasons why I never work from photographic reference. To paint light, I must paint actual light which is composed of photons. A photograph does not contain photons; therefore, it is impossible to interpret actual light from a photograph. To gain a deeper understanding of my subject, I devote a significant portion of my painting time to plein air work. Although my studio paintings are often imaginary, they are informed by thousands of plein air studies which lend emotional and empirical truth to the scenes depicted. Because of my love for the forms of nature and in an attempt to arrive at a more universal and timeless portrayal of reality, a high fidelity to visual truths predominate over a more stylistic approach to my art making. In addition to its descriptive qualities, I strive to make the paint visually interesting in its own right. Towards this end, I employ a variety of techniques to manipulate the support surface as well as the paint itself. These manipulations present the paint as an entity in itself while at the same time create the illusions found in representational oil painting.
  • Creator:
    Joseph McGurl (1958, American)
  • Creation Year:
    2025
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 24 in (60.96 cm)Width: 36 in (91.44 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Greenwich, CT
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU18116655822

More From This Seller

View All
"Monomoy Summer Day" Nantucket landscape painting by Marla Korr

"Monomoy Summer Day" Nantucket landscape painting by Marla Korr

By Marla Korr

Located in Greenwich, CT

Marla Korr is an American painter renowned for her serene marine landscapes, coastal scenes, and atmospheric depictions of New England. This piece features a bright, clear day on the...

Category

2010s Realist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Sconset Bluff Walk" Nantucket landscape painting by Marla Korr

"Sconset Bluff Walk" Nantucket landscape painting by Marla Korr

By Marla Korr

Located in Greenwich, CT

Canvas size: Frame: 40 x 52 in. Frame size: Frame: 46 3/4 x 58 3/4 in. signed lower left This painting depicts the iconic path among the Siasconset (Sconset) cottages on Nantucket I...

Category

2010s Realist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Oil, Canvas

Brant Point Morning Light

Brant Point Morning Light

By Marla Korr

Located in Greenwich, CT

American, b. 1950 Marla Korr attended Brooklyn College, earning both a B.A. and a M.F.A. There she studied with Philip Pearlstein, Lennart Anderson and Jimmy Ernst. She has also s...

Category

2010s American Realist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Linen, Oil

Sunrise at Monomoy

Sunrise at Monomoy

By Marla Korr

Located in Greenwich, CT

American, b. 1950 Marla Korr attended Brooklyn College, earning both a B.A. and a M.F.A. There she studied with Philip Pearlstein, Lennart Anderson ...

Category

2010s American Realist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Linen, Oil

Nantucket Pathways

Nantucket Pathways

By Frank Corso

Located in Greenwich, CT

Frank Corso was born in Syracuse, New York. Taking a keen interest in art at a very early age, he was inspired to draw and paint the landscape of the Finger Lakes region of Upstate New York. He had the opportunity to have very fine art teachers in high school who also happened to be fine painters, artists George Benedict and Nick Todisco, and through their influence he began to polish his painting style from an early age. After attending Onondaga Community College for architecture, and then realizing that the rigid structure of Architecture was not for him, he began elective courses in Fine Arts at Syracuse University, and here, for the first time he began to study abstract painting and design with professors Frank Goodnow...

Category

2010s American Realist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

West Wind, Nantucket

West Wind, Nantucket

By Louis Guarnaccia

Located in Greenwich, CT

Louis Guarnaccia Biography American, b. 1958 Louis was born in Omaha, NE in 1958. At the age of nine he began painting in oil, and at 14, he began studying painting, drawing, and ar...

Category

2010s Realist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Linen, Oil

You May Also Like

Breezy Morning (Classical Realist Oil Landscape of Louse Point, Hamptons, NY)

Breezy Morning (Classical Realist Oil Landscape of Louse Point, Hamptons, NY)

By Susan Hope Fogel

Located in Hudson, NY

"Breezy Morning" by Susan Hope Fogel Painted in Louse Point, Hamptons, NY oil on canvas panel 9 x 12 inches, 17.5 x 21.5 x 1 inches in gold leaf frame wire on reverse for easy instal...

Category

2010s Barbizon School Landscape Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Sailing, Shelter Island" Seascape Painting, Oil on Canvas, 31.5x39.5inch framed

"Sailing, Shelter Island" Seascape Painting, Oil on Canvas, 31.5x39.5inch framed

By Marc Dalessio

Located in Sag Harbor, NY

An oil painting by world renowned contemporary Plein-Air painter, Marc Dalessio (b. 1972, Los Angeles, California). Situated on the sandy beach on Long Island's Shelter Island, Dales...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Barcelona Point" Oil Painting, Landscape of Sag Harbor Bay, Wetlands, Framed

"Barcelona Point" Oil Painting, Landscape of Sag Harbor Bay, Wetlands, Framed

By Terry Elkins

Located in Sag Harbor, NY

"Barcelona Point" is a contemporary landscape painting of the Sag Harbor Bay from the surrounding wetlands in summer. A peninsula of land hosts a line of green shrubs and small trees, which reflect onto the water below it. The blue sky blends into a soft pink as it meets the horizon. Frame Dimensions 24 x 30in Framed in a traditional style, white gold frame. Signed "Terry...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Impressionist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil

"Morning at Menemsha"

"Morning at Menemsha"

By Peter Sculthorpe

Located in Lambertville, NJ

Jim’s of Lambertville is proud to offer this artwork. Signed lower right. Complemented by a hand carved and gilt frame. Peter Sculthorpe (b. 1948) Peter Sculthorpe was born in O...

Category

21st Century and Contemporary American Realist Landscape Paintings

Materials

Canvas, Oil