Sean Murtha was born in 1968, raised on the north shore of Long Island and currently resides in Shoreline Connecticut. Ever the “class artist”, he settled early into the two areas of painting that would remain a lifelong interest- landscape and wildlife. He studied painting at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY, graduating in 1990. Between 1996 and 2006 he was employed at the American Museum of Natural History, where he was able to mix his love of painting with his interest in nature to produce over a dozen dioramas. It was there that he became devoted to the practice of painting in plein air, or directly from nature. He is a member of the Connecticut Plein air Painters Society as well as the Society of Animal Artists, the Lyme Art Association and the Rowayton Art Association. He has exhibited at Windham Fine Arts in Windham, NY, The Blauvelt Museum in Oradell NJ, The Bennington Arts Center in Bennington Vermont, and the prestigious Birds in Art at the Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum in Wausau, WI.

Artist’s Statement:

I am a strong proponent of working directly from life, and do so whenever possible. In the studio I try to retain the spontaneity of my plein-air painting, while more decisively composing the canvas. The most successful of my paintings are specific but loose, give the illusion of depth and space, but have a tactile, energetic surface.

My subject matter has not changed since my youth, and in many ways my present work strives to achieve that magical, dreamlike discovery of nature that defined my youth. Therefore I ignore the ugly and artificial, and rather pay homage to those wild corners that can still be found, and which, by being appreciated, will hopefully be preserved for future dreamers and lovers of nature.