Margery Gosnell

Artist Statement 
 
I begin each series by painting color studies on location to immerse myself in my subject.  I complete my large oils in my studio using my studies as springboards to my original experience.  Because my experience is comprised of all the senses beyond the sense of sight, I am challenged to paint what I hear, touch, and smell, such as the sounds of birds, of splashing water; the smell of salt; the temperature of the air, the touch of the wind.  When one can paint what one sees, painting the other senses becomes a wonderful exploration.  Whereas some may call it “abstraction,” I call it an import of the non-visual sensations into a visual medium.  Much of my experience from an early age has been by the water, so it is in my subconscious.  It has taught me about balance, weightlessness, buoyancy, force, temperature, all of which I discern in my sense of gravity, of touch rather than sight.

Artist Bio

Margery Gosnell-Qua was born in 1962, and grew up in Nassau County on Long Island, later settling on the East End.  Gosnell-Qua received an MFA in Painting and an MS in Art History from Pratt Institute in 1996, where she traveled abroad to study Painting in Tuscany and Art History in Venice, Italy. She also worked as an assistant to painter Mary Buckley (Professor Emerita, Pratt’s 1992 Institute Distinguished Professor), where she documented Buckley’s colorist sensibility and artistic discovery.  

Ms. Gosnell-Qua’s paintings are in private collections in the US and in Europe.  Her work was recently included in the public collection at the East End Hospice In-patient Facility (curator, Arlene Bujese).  Gosnell-Qua’s work has been displayed throughout the US at art fairs including Art Miami, Art Southampton, Art Market and Art Hamptons in Bridgehampton, and Art Silicon Valley.  

Ms. Gosnell-Qua is a recipient of an Andy Warhol Preserve Artists Fellowship (2021), the NYFA Special Opportunity Stipend (2010) and is a NYFA Mark09 participant. She received the Long Island Artist Award at the Heckscher Art Museum in Huntington (2001), and her work was chosen for an “Award of Excellence” in 2009 at The Art League of Long Island in Deer Park (juror, Andrew Arnot of the Tibor de Nagy Gallery). Her work is represented by The George Billis Gallery in Chelsea, and Fitzgerald Gallery in Westhampton Beach, NY. 

Ms. Gosnell-Qua is an Assistant Professor of Art and Art History at Suffolk Community College in Riverhead, NY, where she teaches 2D Design, Art Appreciation, Color, Renaissance to Impressionism, and Drawing. She is also the Curator of the Lyceum Art Gallery at Suffolk County Community College in Riverhead, NY.