Artwork: "Bird of Paradise," available at Bonner David Galleries
Good art is more than just an image on a canvas; good art is emotive. It communicates the feelings and messages of an artist to the audience. This phenomenon is a beautiful example of unspoken human connection; it demonstrates the empathy people have for one another. Artists have this natural ability to depict their experiences or feelings into something beautiful that people can appreciate, relate to and feel. One artist in particular who has an innate ability to capture the sense of the moment in her work is Gail Morris.
Morris is an exceptional contemporary landscape artist who has a deep understanding of color. Morris utilizes this skill to showcase the feeling a landscape gave her through the execution of color, shape and emotion.
“I keep my work feeling calm and serene,” Morris says. “Something that will make people feel peaceful.”
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Morris has always had a love for art and grew up painting. After a disheartening comment from her college professor, she decided to take a break from art and throw herself into photography.
“I went to college for painting and switched my major to art history because my professor said to me, ‘Gail, you’re never going to make it as an artist; you should teach.’”
It wasn’t until she was in Taos, New Mexico, that she decided to pick up a brush and paint again; it was the beauty of the towering mountains amid the vast plateaus that inspired her. After that, she knew art was her true calling, and she never looked back.
Artwork: "Le Fromage," available at Bonner David Galleries.
Artwork: "Palm Beach," available at Bonner David Galleries
Having traveled the world and studied the work of legendary artists such as Mark Rothko,, Russell Chatham, Wayne Thiebaud and Richard Diebenkorn, Morris’ cup of inspiration is never empty. She is heavily influenced by her travels and is best known for her ability to capture a moment in time and place through a more contemporary lens.
“All of my paintings start somewhere. They come from the high desert, or foggy wetlands, or even an aerial view from an airplane.”
Morris is intuitive with herself, allowing feelings to dictate the process of creation for her, from choosing the subject matter to knowing when to put a brush down.
“ I just get a feeling,” she says about her process of selecting a subject matter for her piece. “The same thing happens when I know a painting is done; I will take a step back and just know that it’s finished; I don’t think about it.”
The complex display of color in Morris’ work is nothing short of spectacular, with layers of color hidden and subtle, allowing the viewer to stare at the work for hours and still find new things to observe. “I start with the horizon line,” Morris explains. “ From that point, I move to the color, I think of myself as a colorist and that’s what drives it. I love putting on color and wiping it off with a rag or a sponge or even scraping it off to achieve another type of effect. I build up the painting through this process, so when the gallery gets the finished piece, the paint on it is quite thin.”
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Artwork: "Banasari," available at Bonner David Galleries
Her work’s evolution throughout her career has taken her paintings in more of an impressionistic direction. “I just started making my landscape paintings to where they were still identifiable but a little bit dissolving. The many workshops that I did with Wolf Kahn, who was such an amazing teacher and landscape painter, definitely made my work softer, less graphic.”
In her most recent exhibit at Bonner David Galleries, whom Morris has worked closely with for more than 20 years, she has evolved her work by utilizing pastel colors rather than the earthy tones she is usually drawn to. “My colors when I started were always super bold and bright, then as I traveled northward and began to see more fog and rain, they softened a bit,” Morris says. “I am really excited about this show because it’s more about color. I love vibrating colors in my work, putting different and sometimes contrasting colors next to each other to create some tension and vibration.”
Artwork: "Côte d'Azur," available at Bonner David Galleries
Morris is a visionary artist and a prime example of how following your passions, regardless of the opinions of others, can lead to a life filled with purpose, love, creation and success. Her work continues to inspire patrons worldwide and reminds us to take a moment to pause the chaos of our everyday lives and enjoy the precious and fleeting moments we have on this stunning earth.
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