Guy Corriero

1936 - 0000

Guy Corriero grew up in Long Beach, New York, where he says he spent years as an ocean lifeguard. “It was a lot of fun, but I also learned to have a deep respect for the ocean,” he recalls.

Corriero attended the School of Visual Arts for a year and then The Art Students League in New York City. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in general studies from C. W. Post College, later re-named the C.W. Post Campus of Long Island University, and more recently simply LIU Post.

After graduation from college, Corriero joined the United State Marine Corps, which eventually led to illustrating for the Marine Corps Gazette Magazine. After his service in the Marine Corps, Corriero worked as a commercial artist in New York City, before joining the full-time faculty at The State University of New York at Farmingdale. Seven years later, with a Master of Arts degree in humanities in-hand from Hofstra University on Long Island, he joined the faculty at Herkimer County Community College, designing and implementing a fine arts curriculum. There he received The Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching. His skills as a teacher led to the production of 17 instructional videos by Educational Videos of Huntsville, Texas, titled Watercolor Painting Made Easy. Though he was an instructor for a video series on watercolor painting and a signature member of the American Watercolor Society, as well as several other watercolor societies, Corriero is just as comfortable working in oil. In fact, he is also comfortable painting en plein aire or in the studio, and with painting Western scenes or coastal seascapes. “I paint many different subjects,” says Corriero, though especially since retiring and moving to Portland, Maine the preponderance of his paintings are seascapes. “Moving from watercolors to oils and back again never proved a problem for me, as the principles of successful realistic painting are the same in both mediums (sic). Of course, the application of paint is totally different. Watercolors are more difficult to control and very often a mistake in color or value is not easy to fix. Oils, on the other hand, can be manipulated much more easily. People often ask me which one I prefer, and the answer is the one I’m using at the time,” he says. And, “I paint en plein air as well as in my studio in Portland. Obviously, there are advantages and disadvantages to both methods. Painting directly from nature lends itself to a more intimate infusion of the subject into the final painting. Despite the inconvenience, and sometimes tortuous conditions of wind, rain, bugs and extreme weather conditions, something inexplicable gets into the painting that seldom appears in a studio piece.” However, now well into his eighties, he says, “I must admit that lately I prefer to paint in the studio where I have everything at the ready in comfortable surroundings."

BRYCE CANYON Oil on Masonite 26 x 36 inches