Julie Bowers Murphy : New Work : ‘LOST AT SEA’ @ The Captains Daughters, Provincetown

Artist Julie Bowers Murphy divides her time between Manhattan and Provincetown, which is at the very tip of the end of Cape Cod.  However, just by looking at her work, it’s very obvious where her heart lies.  PTown, after all, is the oldest living art colony in the US, and the light here makes everything look so magical.  If you have never experienced a sunset here, well, you just haven’t lived! 

Bowers Murphy is best known for her lonely, cinematic figurative paintings and soft-edged landscapes.  Her work as a painterly realist references bygone eras in an effort to preserve quiet, introspective moments.

It’s no surprise that her latest body of work is simply called LOST AT SEA.  Bowers Murphy told QUEERGURU.  I find myself often exploring the lives of those who are dependent upon the sea for work: the longshoremen, the lighthouse keepers, the lobstermen, the sailors, the salts. What is it that drives one to work on the oceans? The power of the ocean–the solitude, the loneliness, yet also the camaraderie, and endless possibility of finding new worlds and escaping others…the sea provides the perfect tension for a never-ending story for my work.”

“I have always had some sort of connection to the sea. The smell of it, the feel of it, the calm and the fury…” https://queerguru.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/08/jbvideo.mp4

PS The Captain’s Daughters wish to deny that their father was ever ‘lost at sea’ even though they are still unsure of his exact location