Louise Morgan RCA is an explorer, fascinated with experimentation and the desire to stretch herself creatively. In her latest exhibition, Figuratively Speaking at Caernarfon gallery Life: Full Colour, Louise challenges the notion of an artist having one true voice by delivering an exhibition that intertwines diverse mediums and subjects.
I get bored easily. My mind is constantly on the go and I’m always doing something. I’ve been like this since I was a child. I was a bookworm who loved to try stuff out, perhaps as an escape because I felt ostracised and different to the other kids where I grew up. This restlessness is reflected in my art and my workspace. My studio is stuffed full of different tools from bits of wood to pieces of card, paints, pencils, and anything I can find to make my work more interesting. It’s a mess! But it’s all part of my desire to experiment and to play. I want to make art that encourages you to take another look, to second guess your initial impression or observation, to look deeper.
I don’t believe that an artist has one true voice. Just look at Da Vinci and Michelangelo. Both artists extended themselves beyond painting to drawing and sculpture. Da Vinci was fascinated by engineering, mathematics, and music, while Michelangelo is also known for his poetry and architecture. They were multifaceted in life and in their art. This plurality is important to me as an artist. I rebel against conformity and tradition, I’m a punk at heart. Years ago, when I was learning how to draw figures, there were people who had been going to the studio for years. They kept painting the same thing using the same tools. I would deliberately turn up with something different, for example I drew a figure with a builder’s trowel just to show it was possible.
Most artists have more than one thing they can offer the world, but they get stuck with what sells and become stagnant. I love the element of mystery and I’m always seeking to improve.
My constant quest to progress keeps me on an exploratory journey, never fully satisfied, always seeking to learn more.
It’s this innate curiosity that drives me. I’m fascinated with people, imagery, and light.
This comes through in my latest exhibition, Figuratively Speaking which showcases my diverse range of work. The exhibition spans different media, including oils, acrylics, and mixed media, and includes figurative and landscape works.
The exhibition is a first for me as it shows the complete range of my work. I am a very experimental artist, forever seeking new ideas and different subjects to explore. As a result, the exhibition contains works of many meanderings in my journey through art. I am expressionist and my art is a reaction to the world around me, and from my inner thoughts and feelings.
My artwork can be anything from a direct response to landscape, to an artwork influenced by news articles, or memories from childhood. As a result, visitors to the exhibition will see a variety of pieces. Urban scenes in Caernarfon are juxtaposed with the bleak yet beautiful mountains of North Wales. Poignant moments exist such as a young child blowing the seeds from a dandelion clock and an older man accompanied by his loyal hound. And interspersed through the show are more challenging pieces such as a young girl hugging a broken doll or a boy reading in the confinement of a box.
Each piece has light and movement, depicted in different ways. When viewed, they even change in varying light, creating the sensation of abstract reality, drawing the viewer to the place they were created. I add varying texture and colour to obtain maximum depth, creating a three-dimensional aspect, and the feeling of being able to walk into my paintings.
Ultimately, each piece of work is a vessel for my emotions incorporating jeopardy, movement, and drama to echo the frantic chaos of modern life however there’s no single message. When I was just breaking through, a local professor asked me to define the single message I wanted my work to convey. I told him I want to give loads of messages, not just one! It’s important to me that viewers of my work feel a sense of excitement, to see what I see and to appreciate that there are no limits in art. You can do what you like.
Figuratively Speaking by Louise Morgan RCA is open from 23 June to 5 August at Life: Full Colour, 23-25 Hole in the Wall Street, Caernarfon. For more information, visit www.lifefullcolour.com.
