CONVERSATIONS
The Creative Process with Jim Morgan
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INTO THE WIND, OIL, 27 X 39.
im Morgan is one of the most respected wildlife painters in the country. His passion for wildlife and nature was fostered during his childhood in rural Utah, where he spent much of his free time outdoors hunting and fishing. He’s won numerous awards and honors for his work, including the Robert Lougheed Memorial Award at the National Academy of Western Art (now Prix de West) in 1994 and the Red Smith Artists’ Choice Award from the National Museum of Wildlife Art in 1996. Though he says, “I prefer to express myself with paint, not so much with words,” Morgan recently sat down to answer some questions about his creative process.
FADING DAYLIGHT, OIL, 16 X 20.
What are some of the most challenging aspects of painting wildlife? I think the most important aspect of painting convincing
JIM MORGAN.
scenes is being a keen observer. Whether it’s a wild animal or any other subject, I try to capture the essence and spirit of the scene, animal, and landscape. A harmony. To make the animals become an integral and important part of the landscape, as they are in nature. The animals should be in harmony with their surroundings. There is a certain rhythm found in nature. If that harmony and rhythm can be conveyed on canvas, my effort succeeds in making a convincing picture. One of the most challenging aspects in wildlife painting is actually observing and studying the animals in their natural surroundings. The excitement Featured in
for me is constantly exploring new ways of interpreting the things I enjoy. Where do you go in search of subjects for your work? I don’t have much luck if I go searching for a particular subject for a painting. I seldom find what I’m looking for. Rather, I find more is accomplished if, while wandering, I keep an open mind. Let a subject suggest itself to me, take photos, sketch, file it to be drawn on later. Actually, I spend a great deal of my time out finding ideas for paintings because I prefer a variety of subjects. I need not go far. Most of my painting ideas come from the great area in which we live, Visit subscribenow.southwestart.com
CONVERSATIONS
VISTA PASS, OIL, 24 X 36.
from as close as our backyard bird feeders to the high desert sage country of Wyoming. How does living in Utah influence your work? My wife, Ruth, and I live in a small northern Utah town. We attended Utah State University in the early ’70s and have lived here since. The area has a very diverse landscape and a wide variety of wildlife. We are surrounded by above-timberline mountains, vast marshes, and everything in between. Especially enjoyable are the four distinct seasons the area offers. This diverse landscape provides endless possibilities for painting subjects.
Are there any animals that you are particularly fond of painting? More than anything I enjoy the process of painting. I try not to limit myself to a narrow range of subject matter. There are too many wonderful things in nature. The subjects for my work range from chickadees to moose. It depends on what I’m excited about at the time. It would be difficult, but if I had to put my finger on a few special species— swans, yellow headed blackbirds, and moose. What have been some of your most memorable painting experiences? Most every painting I tackle presents a new set of problems to be solved. So some of the things I
remember most are small bits and pieces of a paint-covered rectangle where I feel that I’ve partially solved a problem or made a small step in the right direction. One of my favorite things is painting adventures with artist friends, like a pack trip into the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming or an excursion to the East Coast to paint on barrier islands and salt marshes. Painting outdoors—I don’t do it as much as I would like. Light, and its effect on your subject, is a key element of your works. Can you explain how you approach capturing the effects of light on canvas? I enjoy the process of observation
almost as much as I do the painting of pictures. The effects of different light situations are definitely one of the primary elements, the inspiration and spark that prompt me to begin a painting. As far as explaining my approach, that is a difficult endeavor. The attempt of painting the illusion or impression of light is much like painting the other elements in art, [such as] value, line, color, harmony, etc. As artists, it should be a matter of being keen observers, trying to truly understand and analyze the things we are seeing. And do our best to interpret our vision in paint. With our limited tools— paint, brushes, and canvas—it is not possible to actually paint light. Only Mother Nature can do that. All we can hope to accomplish is to try to do some justice to the natural world.
What do you hope to accomplish with your paintings? I feel very fortunate to be able to do that which I love most, everything to do with the picturemaking process. My goal is nothing more than to enjoy the process of painting and to celebrate and share the wonderful things I find in the natural world. To sell a painting now and then, to be able to buy more paint and brushes, and go fishing. As painter and author Daniel Burleigh Parkhurst said, “Painting implies making a picture, it is true, but it means also seeing and representing charming things, and working out problems of beauty in the expression of color and
Who are some of your artistic influences, and what do you like about their work? The list is a long one. I enjoy a variety of art, but mainly I’m drawn to many of the artists who worked at the close of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. Some of the artists whose work I most appreciate are Anders Zorn, Emil Carlson, John Singer Sargent, Isaak Levitan, and animal artists such as Carl Rungius and Bruno Liljefors. I’m also very much influenced by the three-dimensional work of sculptors like Rembrandt Bugatti and Antoine-Louis Barye. I enjoy these artists’ works not so much because of the subject matter or technique but because of their originality, honest effort, and lack of contrivance. They each had a very personal way of interpreting the things they observed.
form, and this is something more than what is commonly meant by a picture. The picture comes, and is the result, but the making of it carries with it a pleasure and joy which are in exact proportion to the power of appreciation, perception, and expression of the painter. This is the real reason for painting, and it makes the desire and the attempt to paint well a matter of course.” ❏
SIGNS OF SPRING, OIL, 14 X 11.
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