Sean Murtha

Artist Statement

Art has been a defining part of my identity for as long as I can remember. Every passing youthful interest, from trains to dinosaurs to space exploration, was expressed visually, and provided fodder for my earliest experiments with pencils, inks and paint. The natural world always interested me but in my teens I became captivated by birds, and this interest has never faded. At the same time I was maturing as an artist and birds became my natural muse. I paint birds in the landscapes they inhabit, with an intimate knowledge of them gained from years of observation. I prefer to paint birds that I have sketched from life, and therefore my painted subjects tend to be larger, less flighty birds that allow more prolonged study. Larger birds also allow the landscape, with its attendant light and atmosphere, to play a larger role. Much of my painting is in fact landscape alone, painted in plein air in both oil and watercolor- the latter especially convenient for capturing my travels, such as a recent trip to Antarctica, represented by a few pieces in this collection.