Seascape and Beach Paintings for Sale

Apprenticed at 19 at his father’s insistence to a Boston lithographer, the free-spirited artist Winslow Homer barely survived the grinding monotony of the job. While his mother tried to raise funds to send him to study in Europe, Harper’s Weekly instead sent Homer to the front lines to sketch the Civil War. Back in New York, he turned some of the sketches into oil paintings, such as Prisoners from the Front.

In time Homer became more reclusive, leaving New York to take up residency with a lighthouse keeper’s family in the secluded Eastern Point Lighthouse on the coast of Cape Ann, MA. Strongly reconnecting with his New England roots, nautical scenes and watercolor dominated his work.

The seascapes of Homer’s later years won considerable acclaim. Even today, art collectors can visit his Prouts Neck studio just feet from the Maine coastline. The crashing waves and working class fishing community inspired his paintings of the roiling sea in works such as Undertow, the dramatic rescue of two female bathers.

Socialite Molly Flagg Knudtsen grew up with riding lessons in Central Park in New York and trips to the beach on the Atlantic coast. After graduating from London’s Royal Institute of the Horse, she moved to Nevada and married a thoroughbred horse trainer from one of Nevada’s founding families. On any given day on the ranch, Molly unearthed cultural artifacts, and she used her position as a trustee of the Nevada State Museum to map and preserve what she found. Molly assumed many other public service roles, ultimately earning an honorary Doctorate from the University of Nevada. Her successful cattle business allowed her to indulge a love of art, among her collection were two Winslow Homer paintings, including the seascape painting Two Boys in a Dory. When she passed away in 2001, Dr. Molly Flagg Knudtsen’s legacy continued in a generous bequest to The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The artists at UGallery express the colorful changing of the tide in our curated selection of beach paintings. Read what our seascape artists Laura Browning and Sarah Parsons have to say about painting the ocean.

“My work is inspired by the pattern and movement of light reflections in water. I’m fascinated by the luminous color interactions created by currents and waves as light dances between them. It continues to be a wonderful challenge to explore ways to capture this movement on a canvas, to represent the depth and life of an ever moving landscape.” - Laura Browning, Seascape oil painter

“Some of my earlier memories include visiting my grandparents’ home on Cape Cod where my grandmother had an art studio. Whether inhaling the salty sea air or the crisp mountain air, I learned the power the environment and atmosphere have on creativity and emotions. I am inspired by the physical landscape combined with surprising color combinations.” - Sarah Parsons, Abstract seascape painter