Stephen Coyle

Stephen Coyle has developed a reputation for his dazzling figurative paintings of impassive urban landscapes, still lifes, and bustling beach scenes. Many of Coyle’s artworks show families in colorful swimwear enjoying a day at the beach, with children playing and adults lounging or swimming. Coyle’s interest in painting beach scenes stems from his desire to produce work that explores the most essential and primal qualities of human beings. He pays close attention to the composition, placement, and gestures of the figures in his paintings, which include both individual subjects and densely populated crowds. Some paintings feature rows of brightly colored umbrellas, as in Intimacy (2020), while others such as The Calm (2020) depict quiet, ruminative scenes. His other paintings portray aerial views of busy city sidewalks or dinner tables jam-packed with food and drink.