I painted my sensory experiences, discovering ways to express the dynamic coastal environment. In 2020, I painted a watercolor study of the boys up in the lifeguard stand. Although the people around me were in my line of sight, I altered some figures to provide a variety of archetypes, mindful of including people of different genders, ages, and ethnicities. The directional paint strokes are dynamic forces on the surface and into the third dimension. They suggest changes in wind and heat that carry light through the humid atmosphere. The paint texture has a direction that one feels at their center of gravity as beachgoers interact and the surf crashes ashore. The colors are descriptive while also expressive. The back of the figure in the foreground contains pink, orange, and red. White describes reflected light off the burning sand and highlights on skin rich with sunscreen and perspiration.
So reads the artist statement by Margery Gosnell-Qua about her painting Jetty.
It is a vibrant, gestural painting that captures the excitement of Memorial Day weekend and the summer ahead.
Gosnell-Qua lives on the East End of Long Island, where she spent her childhood summers. She received an MFA in Painting and an MS in Art History from Pratt Institute in 1996, studying Painting in Tuscany and Art History in Venice, Italy. She also worked as an assistant to painter Mary Buckley (Pratt’s 1992 Institute Distinguished Professor, Professor Emerita), documenting Buckley’s colorist sensibility and artistic discoveries.
Gosnell-Qua’s paintings are in private collections in the US and Europe, including the public collection at the East End Hospice In-patient Facility. Her work has been exhibited throughout the US at art fairs, including Art Miami, Art Southampton, Art Market, Art Hamptons, and Art Silicon Valley.
Among many Gosnell-Qua’s accolades include the 2024 Luxembourg Art Prize, the 2023 Estes Valley Plein Air event, the 2021 Andy Warhol Montauk Preserve Artists Fellowship, and the Long Island Artist Award at the Heckscher Art Museum in Huntington in 2001. She is also a recipient of an NYFA Special Opportunity Stipend and an NYFA Mark09 participant.
Her work has been represented by Fitzgerald Gallery in Westhampton Beach; Clic St. Barth in the French West Indies; The George Billis Gallery in CT and NYC; and Birnamwood Gallery in East Hampton.
Gosnell-Qua is an Assistant Professor of Art and Art History at Suffolk Community College in Riverhead, where she teaches Painting, 2D Design, Art Appreciation, Color, Renaissance to Impressionism, and Drawing. She also serves as Curator of the Suffolk County Community College Lyceum Art Gallery in Riverhead.
Learn more about Margery Gosnell-Qua by visiting her website: margerygosnellqua.com.
