JAMES MORRISON R.S.A., R.S.W. (SCOTTISH B.1932) §
ANGUS LANDSCAPE
£2,000
Auction: 22 January 2019 at 11:00 GMT
Description
Signed and dated '89, oil on board
Dimensions
46cm x 59cm (18in x 23.25in)
Footnote
Note:
James Morrison was born in Glasgow in 1932 and attended Glasgow School of Art from 1950 to 1954. This group of four oil paintings, all signed and dated by Morrison, exemplify the panoramic vistas and dramatic skyscapes which the artist is renowned for. In the canon of Scottish art landscape painting has been a symbol of Scottish identity since the eighteenth century and Morrison follows this tradition by exploring the diversity of his native country, drawing inspiration from the remote ruggedness of the West Coast to the rolling fields around his home in Angus where he settled in 1965.
The painting, Mountains, Sutherland (1990) depicts a dramatic peak studded landscape cast in partial shadow by a vast sky filled with billowing clouds. Morrison's descriptive title reflects the faithful naturalistic representation of the northern county's sweeping moorlands and dramatic geological formations. These paintings were initially executed en plein air and then later finished in the studio which enabled Morrison to record each distinct season, weather or light. However, to describe Morrison as a realist would be to oversimplify his style. The variety of mark making in Morrison's works subtly reveal the artist's hand reflecting the impact of the European and American avant-garde who in the 1950s and 1960s were experimenting with a more expressive style of painting.
Morrison works back into the painting by wiping away washes of colour to reveal the white gesso ground applied underneath in order to give the clouds their bright appearance and create an illusion of solidity against the opaque blue grey sky. Morrison's also evokes the variety of textures in the natural landscape by using directional brushstrokes to suggest the movement of wind through the tufts of long grass in the foreground. These gestural marks add a degree of abstraction into Morrison's landscapes which enable him to bridge the gap between the tradition of Scottish landscape painting and a contemporary expression of artistic individuality.