Artist’s Statement

 

I am a painter, although I also use printmaking and photography quite extensively.  I work from natural forms and from landscapes which have significance to me.  The memories evoked by objects and places are of great importance in my work.  Some memories we are aware of but the same objects and places can hold totally different meaning for different people.  Colour and texture are fundamental to my work. I manipulate and exaggerate the forms and colours of the things I paint to produce either larger, more abstract works or smaller, more intimate pieces. I am fascinated with the process of painting and try to influence and manage the accidental and incidental transformations which take place on the paper and canvas.

 

Particular landscapes create memories in vivid colour.  The wide skies of East Anglia form blue memories for me.  The Gorges de Toul Goulic, a place with mythical associations, stays in my memory as a vivid green.  The shells and stones which feature in my paintings hold memories of time spent within these landscapes and when I paint them I also remember the feel of the object.

 

I am a beachcomber, always searching for the perfect spiral within the next shell.  I am an explorer of the landscape in search of the next place which will live on in the mind and inspire.  I am an explorer of paint and I love the incidental marks and interactions of colours as I work.

 

Peg Morris, 2007

 

Background

 

After a foundation course at North East Essex School of Art, I completed a degree in Fine Art at Gloucestershire College of Arts and Technology from 1985 -1988. I  worked in photography and then designing holograms before training as a primary teacher.  Teaching and then having my own children took over for a number of years although I have studied etching at Putney School of Art for several years.  I feel I have waited a long time for the opportunity to commit myself again to being an artist.  I now paint full time, working from my studio in Kingston upon Thames.