‘Illusion of detail’ W Creations by painter
Jim Morgan
“Desert Dreamer”
“Preening Wood Ducks”
ildlife and landscape painter Jim Morgan won’t wax poetic about the creative process, or get all sappy over the prospect of parting with a piece he’s sunk his soul into. “I can’t wait to get rid of the damn things,” he said. “I’ve done what I can do and I want to move on.” He gestured at a painting of a snoozing coyote, which sat on an easel in the studio — filled with animal skulls and antlers, a giant wasp nest, worn wooden duck decoys and a wall of art books — of his Mendon home Wednesday. “That one I’m pretty much wore out looking at,” said the 63-year-old native of Goshen, Utah, who’s lived in Cache Valley since he came to Utah State University to study art in the 1960s. He was framing the 24-by-36, oil-on-linen piece called “Desert Dreamer” in preparation for its display at an upcoming show in Southern Utah. The painting (priced at $14,600) appeared in a show at the Autry National Center, a museum of western heritage, in Los Angeles earlier this year. Morgan says he has no system for painting — simply
speaking, he goes with his internal flow, apparently wi out really understanding it, least without talking about i “I prefer to express mysel with paint, not so much wit words,” he told an interview for Southwest Art Magazine 2003 in a Q&A about the cr ative process. He went on to say in the a cle: “I try to capture the ess and spirit of the scene, anim and landscape. A harmony. make the animals become a integral and important part the landscape, as they are in nature. The animals should in harmony with their surro ings. There is a certain rhyt found in nature. If that harm and rhythm can be conveye canvas, my effort succeeded making a convincing pictur Morgan grew up in tiny G hen, a wide-open farming a mining community on the s end of Utah Lake. His fathe Harold, was an avid hunter worked at various times as a farmer, miner and trapper. “To be interested in art w kind of an odd-man-out thin said Morgan. Still, Morgan’s parents su ported his painting passion, which has led to a solid 30year career churning out we regarded paintings and a rep
“Story in Stone”
“Quiet Dawn” “Remnants”
“Heat Wave”