130Art22-CoverFINAL_NoUPC

Artist Profile: Sharon McGauley

Cape Cod Art  /  ART Annual 2022 /

Writer: Chris White

Artist Profile: Sharon McGauley

130Art22-CoverFINAL_NoUPC

Cape Cod Art  /  ART Annual 2022 /

Writer: Chris White


One Boat, Early Morning • Oil on canvas • 30″ x 30″

In some ways, the form and process of Sharon McGauley’s art represents the scope of Cape Cod’s landscape. Just as the eye can take in an entire harbor or an expanse of seashore, it can also zoom in on something as small as an individual person wading out on the flats, a single dinghy in the peach-pink gauze of a foggy dawn, or even pebbles and grains of sand at water’s edge. Sharon McGauley’s paintings range in size from tiny to the grand. She beautifully captures both expansive seascapes (as in Cotton Candy Cloud and Twilights) and human figures with their myriad personalities (such as the The Pink Pirate and the swimmers in Going Under). 

Painting in different sizes and subjects animates McGauley as an artist. “I love making paintings of all sizes,” she says. “I have a feeling of being excited to paint most every time I pick up my brush, no matter what size I am working on. Larger paintings can be in my studio for weeks, or even months, so to have a little painting come together in an afternoon is fun and satisfying in a different way.” 

Cotton Candy Cloud • Oil on canvas • 36″ x 25″
Although McGauley has painted all over the country, her connection to this area runs deep. “Cape Cod has been the most consistent and long running influence in my work,” she says. “I visited the Cape for the first time as a young child, with family friends, and the first painting I made was of dunes from that trip. It still hangs in my parents’ house. At this point...

Want to read this article and more?

Subscribe today to our Digital Edition to gain full access to this article plus every issue of LIFE or HOME for only $9.95.

Chris White

Chris White is a frequent writer for Cape Cod Life Publications and has written on topics ranging from the history of Smith’s Tavern on Wellfleet Island to the sinking of the SS Andrea Doria off Nantucket. Chris also teaches English at Tabor Academy in Marion.