For more than seventy years, John DeGuardi answered the world with a brush — the Long Island shore, the saints he served, and the faces of the family who called him Papa.
Born above his father’s grocery in Queens and trained at New York University and Columbia, he spent half a century teaching others to see. Most of his work hangs where he wanted it most — in the homes of the people he loved.
Selected Works
View all →Works
{{ galleryCount }}Landscapes, seascapes, still lifes, and the portraits of a lifetime.
Sacred Works
{{ sacredCount }}Icons and crucifixes in the egg-tempera and gold-leaf tradition.
Sketchbook
{{ sketchCount }}Pen-and-ink drawings from his travels through Italy and France.
Works
Landscapes and seascapes, still lifes, city scenes, and family portraits painted across seven decades, nearly all now hanging in the homes of family and friends.
Sacred Works
Icons, crucifixes, and devotional paintings made in the egg-tempera and gold-leaf tradition — the work of a man who served as an ordained deacon at Our Lady of Lourdes for fifteen years.
Sketchbook
Pen-and-ink drawings from his travels through Italy, France, and beyond — cathedral façades and Tuscan hill towns, market squares and quiet courtyards, each caught in a few spare lines.
John Paul DeGuardi
John Paul DeGuardi was born in New York City on August 12, 1932, and grew up in an apartment above his father’s Italian grocery store in Flushing, Queens. He earned a degree in Art Education from New York University and a master’s from Columbia.
In 1955 he began a teaching career that would span fifty years. At Bethpage High School he led the art department and became, to a generation of students, simply “Mr. D.” He retired in 1987 and went on teaching at St. Joseph’s University in Patchogue for another twenty years.
He and his wife, Anne, raised four children in West Islip, their home for fifty years, and were devoted members of the Our Lady of Lourdes parish, where John served as an ordained deacon for fifteen years — the faith that runs through his icons and crucifixes.
He worked in oil, acrylic, and watercolor. Most of his paintings are treasured in the homes of family and friends. He died on January 24, 2023, surrounded by his family.
“The art room was my sanctuary.”
“A kind and gentle soul.”
“John, drink your water.”
