Joseph McGurl Bio

Joseph McGurl


Joseph McGurl graduated from Massachusetts College of Art with a dual major in Fine Art and Education.  After a short period as a yacht captain sailing from Maine to the Caribbean, he has devoted his life to landscape painting.  He is one of America's most prominent contemporary landscape painters, and his work is exhibited from coast to coast.  He is a devoted plein air painter who regularly travels and paints throughout the American West inspired by its natural beauty and history.


Joseph has had retrospective show at the the Cape Cod Museum of Art, The Cahoon Museum of American Art, and the Saint Botolph Club of Boston.

The Arnot Art Museum's "Representing Representation" exhibitions included his work as an example of contemporary landscape painting.  In 2024, he was selected as the featured artist for the Coors Western Art Show in Denver.  He is in the collections of The New Britain Museum of Western Art, The Cape Cod Museum of Art, The Cahoon Museum of Art, The Mellon Collection, The Art Renewal Center, The Tweed Museum of Art, The Forbes Collection, Westmorland Museum of Art, Christopher Forbes, and Sen. John Kerry. 


He has been designated a "Living Master" by the Art Renewal Center, elected to the Guild of Boston Artists, was a Copley Master with the Copley Society of Boston, was a fellow with the American Society of Marine Artists, and is a signature member of The Plein Air Painters of America.


Among his many awards are two Art Renewal Center international Salon's First Place in Landscape Awards, the Plein Air Magazine Award, the American Fine Art Magazine Award of Excellence, the Rehs Award, Best of Show and Patron's Choice at the Laguna Plein Air Invitational, three Patron's

Choice Awards and the Western Art Collector Magazine Award at the Coors Western Art Exhibitions, two Guild of Boston Artists First Place Gold Medallions, Best Group of Paintings at the Salmagundi Club American Masters Show, First Place at the Salmagundi Club Members' Show, the Boldbrush Award, and the Copley Society's John Singleton Copley Award given for Artistic Acheivement.

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