Joseph McGurl has unquestionably become one of the most sought after, and influential, landscape artists currently painting in America.

Born 1958, in Needham, MA. he credits his father, muralist James McGurl, as his earliest influence and teacher. McGurl completed his academic training at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and then at Massachusetts College of Art. He continued his studies abroad in England and Italy, and at home under the tutelage of Boston School painter Robert Cormier. This combination of classical training and independent travel helped McGurl to develop his personal style organically – it is a continuation of a tradition that can be traced back to the French academies, but executed in his own vernacular.

McGurl has long identified with the notion of artist as record-keeper. Just as the painters of the Hudson River School acted as journalists, documenting man’s incursions and discoveries in distant lands, McGurl set out to transcribe his own experience of the New England landscape in a manner reflective of who he is, and what he values most.

In developing his mature style, McGurl acknowledges his indebtedness to the Boston School painters, whose teachings emphasized the importance of drawing from life while infusing academic traditions with the pure light of the Impressionists. By painting sketches outdoors, McGurl gained a command of the full visible spectrum of natural light, using warm hues for highlights and cool ones for shadows.

Intellectual curiosity has made McGurl an active learner throughout his adult life. His reading list includes books on physics, wave dynamics, and climatology in addition to art historical compendiums. When observing the landscape, he is guided by an understanding of the scientific principles that govern its behaviors and grant it the properties he hopes to depict on the canvas.

McGurl is also guided by a direct, experiential connection to nature.  What he chooses to paint is not at all arbitrary; it is a result of years of firsthand observations. “I paint the ocean because I love to swim, sail, and surf,” he explains, and “I paint the mountains because I have been hiking and skiing there my whole life.” An avid mariner, he completes many of his sketches on location aboard his own John Alden-designed ketch, aptly named the Atelier.

continued