Joseph Purcell

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Joseph Purcell was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He studied at the Nova Scotia College of Art. He began exhibiting early in his career including at the Granville Galleries in 1947. It was in the summer of 1947 that Purcell shared a studio with fellow artist and former classmate Jack L. Gray in New Harbour, Nova Scotia. He completed a series of murals for the private salons in the Westin Nova Scotian hotel in Halifax and the Victoria General Hospital. He moved to Lunenburg, Nova Scotia in 1953 with his wife Tela Purcell, who is also a noted painter and together they opened the Purcell Family Art Gallery in 1971. Joseph Purcell’s paintings have been shown at the Granville Galleries (1947, 1951, 1952, 1967), Zwicker’s Gallery in Halifax (April and November 1969, 1970, 1972), Dartmouth Heritage Museum (1970), Robertson Galleries in Ottawa (1972), Nova Scotia Fisheries Exhibition in Lunenburg (1975) as well as numerous other traveling shows in Montreal, Ottawa, New York and London England. His murals are in the following buildings; Place Ville Marie, Montreal, the Lord Nelson Hotel, the Roy Building, the Eastern Trust Co., Maritime Telegraph and Telephone Co., St. Paul’s Church in Halifax as well as the Dartmouth Heritage Museum and the Fisherman’s Memorial Room in Lunenburg. A collection of his work is held at the Silver Dart in Baddeck, Cape Breton. He has won numerous awards including Second at the O’Keefe Art Awards (1950), Saturday Night Award for his painting reproduced in the Bank of Montreal Calendar (1952), Second Award at the Seagram’s Cities of Canada (1953), “Picture of the Month” the Winnipeg Tribune (July, 1953). His paintings are in the collection of the DesBrisay Museum in Bridgewater and in countless collections around the world.

From <http://www.northshorecanadianart.com/PurcellLunenburg.htm>