Artist Gallery

Munsell studied fine art at Otis Art Institute, Santa Monica College and with California artist Bonnie Wade from the age of 10 until high school. He currently lives in Mission Viejo, California with his wife Lorrie and has four children and 6 grandchildren.

William Havlicek, art editor, practicing artist and former museum curator on Munsell's work:

Munsell is a Luminist. He explores a range of naturalistic subject matter with a sensitive eye for light and, more specifically, for degrees of luminosity. Like the 19th century American landscape painters, Inness and Church, he uses nuances of light to create transcendent evocations. At a time when excess is a great temptation for an artist, it is refreshing to find an individual like Munsell who embraces time-honored tradition and attempts the difficult. He may approach a silent mountain terrain where clouds and light are as much the subjects of the work as are the peaks and strong pines. His subject matter is more than the obvious, which is why his painting strikes deep and lingers long. Like Winslow Homer, who in his late work explored the profundity of water and light, Munsell too presents us with a shimmering world of cold waves, rock and sunlight. Dark, billowing swells are in Munsell's hand surprisingly alive. It is certain that he knows the subject intimately. Where other painters would rest content with the eerie glow of backlit waves, he takes on the more difficult illusions of mass, weight, undertow and tidal current. Taking the effects of light on his primary subject may be his way of expressing a belief in a supernatural origin for the natural universe. One gets the feeling that Munsell wants to communicate more about his subject than paint alone can suggest. Munsell's works have a staying power which gains the more the works are experienced. Like the subject he undertakes, he seeks to convey the timeless and lasting effects of Creation.

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