Mary Morrison

Yesterday an Artist called Mary Morrison came into our class to show us some of her work and talk us through her techniques, inspirations and processes.

She was born on the Isle of Harris, the largest island in the outer hebrides, but now lives in the Borders of Scotland. She paints using oil paint and uses mixed medias like Ash, turpentine, pencil or silver leaf. She liked to paint flat and let things react on canvas. She told us that she paints a memory or a feeling, not a view.

Her inspirations are, where she was born, maps, poetry, music and of course other artists like John Schueler, Mark Rothko, Shiraz Houshiary and Anish Kapoor. This is very obvious in her work. She spoke about her work inspired by music and the idea of "notes in space". This was some of my favorites of her work. It is inspired by abstract music notations, the works of John Cage and started by her cutting up music books. With this another series was born, that she names "Sea Music" I really liked these because they combined landscapes and musical notation.

Night Song – Atlantic Drawing II, Oil, collage on paper

Sea Music - Dawn, Oil, graphite, wax on board

Sea Music – Undertow Oil, shellac, pigment on canvas

I really like the sense of mystery you get from looking at these, i feel that has a lot to do with all the layers in her work.  I felt this strongly in her Series "shadow maps" because of the use of darker colours apposed to her usual blues and golds.

Shadow Map Oil, mixed media on board

Gaunt Poem Oil, mixed media on paper 

One thing i found very interesting was, last year we went to a Gallery to see some work by artists around the borders, and i actually remember looking at some of Mary Morrison's work. At the time i did not have the same understanding of art as i do now and i remember being very confused by her work, now i understand it a lot more and i can appreciate it. I have learned that i should be asking the question, what is this piece about? why did they paint it? instead of disregarding it because i don't understand it.

Another thing i found interesting is the amount of change and playing around with mediums Mary Morrison dose. I found that thought very exciting, that you can be always learning and playing around with your work and that its always going to be about discovery and progression throughout your life.



http://www.marymorrison.co.uk
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