artist work

JESSIE MORGAN

Mixed media paintings on plexiglass and aluminum

Jessie Morgan's work will be on exhibit throughout the 2012 season.

For more information on Jessie Morgan's work please contact Dennis Costin, Gallery Director.

The Boston Globe by Cate McQuaid

The surface of her paintings is dense and alluring, like stratified waterfalls of color. Each is a rippled veil through which we glimpse other colors, other worlds. Morgan is a colorist. her tones, and the way they interact, set off particular reactions: vulnerability or energy."


"Jessie Morgan builds gesso reidges over the surface of her pieces, paints, then traces those ridges with pencil. The washes of tone feel thereal, but the texture is like furrowed land."

The Boston Herald by Joanne Silver

Lush Clouds of color sift across the dimpled surfaces of Jessie Morgan's paintings on canvas, all titled "Waking Up". These, too, luxuriate in tone and texture, in layers emerging from organic depths.

For Morgan, this layer is not an opaque shield, but a flickering veil of luminous color. Multiple coats of paint have been built up and scraped off until the final abstraction attains the misty shimmer of light on water. Dots of color pool and break up to expose previous tones just below the undulating surface. Pale blue dances over reds and yellows. Ochre meanders over shallow ridges. Snowyu clouds drift like fog on a ground of golden veins.

All the paintings in "Waking Up" tantalize with textures that remain almost invisible from certain angles and then pop out from others. "Skin" in these works has a more universal meaning than simply human flesh. As rendered in paint, it is the appearance of any aspect of nature-from a misty breeze to a rippling pond. "Waking Up" evokes a process of coursing through many levels before reaching the last one, and Morgan echoes this journey with her laborious technique."

Art New England by Shawn Hill

"Morgan's surfaces are like seaweed, whole walls of it. Reticulated and striated, they seem to breathe in organic cellular life. Her colors are varied (off-shades of primaries, deep red, pale blues, hints of gold), and her titles suggest deeper, specific meanings."

 

 

Of her work, Jessie Morgan says, "I work to create a sense of mystery and clarity, intensity and vastness. For me, painting is an active process of give and take and exciting discovery. It is a way of looking to see and understanding the rhythm of change. I am not trying to represent a singular view; instead I am creating a new entity which is a compilation of these observations and experiences." 

Jessie applies layers of paint, charcoal and pencil in a thin scrim that builds organically, allowing light to pass partially through it, rather like frosted glass, or skin, giving nourishment to the deeper layers. Looking at these paintings, one feels the depth of nature, human and geological, the building up and breaking down that accompanies every living moment. And one is reminded, too, of the trial and error of nature, of fate, of Art.

The move to aluminum as support in her most recent work grew out of that trial and error. Morgan began to feel she needed a support with more resistance. She didn't want to have to hold back her gesture, worrying about damaging the canvas. The result is not really a departure from her earlier work, but an evolution. Light seems to emanate from deep within the layered glazes. Although influenced by nature.

 Morgan is not interested in replicating. it. Her paintings evoke the broad experience of ones' field of vision. She works intuitively, incorporating characteristics of light and the seasons as she considers change and life cycles. She doesn't start a painting with a preconceived idea. The image develops and takes shape as she works, building layer upon layer of paint and glaze, on a ground of aluminum, which offers a slick, rigid, reflective surface. Light emanates from deep within the layered glazes, always revealing bits of what comes before. It is a give and take process of adding and removing, seeing and reacting. She says of her work, "The painting I am creating is a new entity which is a confluence of my experiences, observatoins and impressions."

Another important change for Morgan has been the move to a new, more spacious studio--higher ceilings, more light. Literally and figuratively, she has more room to experiment!

Morgan received her BFA from Tufts University and later a Diploma from the Museum School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. She has exhibited at the Clark Gallery in Lincoln, MA; Simon Gallery, Morristown, NJ; Lanuoe Fine Art, Boston, Danforth Museum of Art, Framingham, MA; AAF Contemporary Art Fair (2007), NYC and the Rosenfeld Gallery in Philadelphia, among others, including numerous juried exhibitions.

ERNDEN FINE ART GALLERY is pleased to represent Jessie Morgan.  For more information on Jessie's work, please contact Dennis Costin, Gallery Director at 508-487-6700 or 1-888-304-ARTS or via email at erndengallery@att.net.