An artist’s education

October 21, 2019

Biography

On a previous version of this website, my biography read:

Eric Lease Morgan — an emerging artist — has painted for several years. Creativity has always been important in his life.

Using acrylics, Eric passionately paints stylized flowers and nudes with bold impasto strokes and bright hues. “What appears on the canvas is a combination of what I see, what I feel, and what I believe to be the essence of my subject. When it comes to technique, the work is not done until there is enough paint on the canvas.”

A nationally acclaimed librarian for more than twenty-five years, Eric spent much of that time writing computer software improving the ways of librarianship. “Believe it or not, writing software is a lot like writing music or poetry.” Unfortunately, software development recently became stale because the medium grew too quickly obsolete. “It is very difficult to portray beauty in computer software. Believe me. I’ve been trying since 1976.”

Eric is the son of Carol Morgan and the late Richard Morgan, both active for many years in Lancaster County’s (Pennsylvania) art community. “I learned the concept of line from my mother, and my father gave me an appreciation for color.”

Eric’s other interests include music, playing many styles of guitar and a Baroque recorder, photography, folding origami flora and fauna, growing roses, and binding his handmade books.

As written, the biography is more or less accurate, mostly more.

October 21, 2019

Exhibits

To date, I have had the following exhibits:

• Collaborative Pottery with Barbara, Fire Arts, South Bend (Indiana) – Summer 2018
• Annual Faculty/Student Art Exhibit, South Bend Museum of Art, South Bend (Indiana) – May 2018
• Figures & Flowers, First Unitarian Church, South Bend (Indiana) – December 2014/February 2015
• Annual Faculty/Student Art Exhibit, South Bend Museum of Art, South Bend (Indiana) – May 2014
• Allen, Vandygriff, & Morgan, Colfax Community Center, South Bend (Indiana) – January/March 2014
• Boats On A Lake, Culver Coffee Company, Culver (Indiana) – March/April 2014
• Flowers In A Shop, Grand Central Coffee, Lancaster (Pennsylvania) – January/February 2014
• In My Aunt’s House, Jonal Galleries, Columbia (Pennsylvania) – October/November 2013
• Initial Outing, Art Beat, South Bend (Indiana) – July 2012

October 21, 2019

Artist’s statement, again

I really don’t understand “artist’s statements”. What are these things, and why are they important? What was Rembrant’s artist statement? What about Picasso or Matisse? Did they have artist’s statements? Why or why not? Why is an artist’s statement necessary? Can’t an artist’s work speak for itself?

Despite these questions, I recently submitted a set of current work to a local gallery, and I was asked to submit an artist’s statement. It read:

Eric’s current direction includes the mixing of raw pigments with various mediums, and then applying the results to large-scale pieces of paper in a bold and expressive style. Intended to be experienced up close and personal -- if not actually touched -- Eric carves and sculpts his colors as if the observer is expected to feel the curves of the figure or the softness of the flower. There is zero attempt to create a photo-realistic image. Instead, Eric’s paintings are things of the mind’s eye.

While being an artist all his life, Eric has only been seriously painting since 2012. He is an accomplished presenter (acting and lecturing), musician (guitar, recorder, piano, and cello), author (travelogues, software, and scholarly articles), and craftsman (ceramics, origami, bookbinding, leatherwork).

Eric’s formal training has taken place in South Bend, Florence, Chicago, Philadelphia, Rome, Avignon (France), and Malaga (Spain). Eric’s informal training includes a thorough understanding art history in the Western tradition. Eric is an “autodidact”.

October 21, 2019

Artist’s statement

A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away, I posted an artist's statement on previous version of this website. It read:

Eric Lease Morgan’s paintings and sketches identify beauty in everyday objects and characterize this beauty through color and line.

Using an impasto technique and acrylic paints Morgan captures and emphasizes the essence of his subjects — frequently flowers and nude figures. Most often these are based on real-world examples, yet many times come from his imagination. Lilies, irises, and roses are favorite subjects. It is not important to Morgan to make an exact representation of what he sees. “If I wanted to depict an object just as it appears, then I would take a photograph.”

Using his iPad and a simple drawing application, Eric imports photographs and sometimes draws over them in a “paint by numbers” sort of way. Because the application does not support a large number of colors nor fine-grained brush strokes the resulting sketch brings out the essential characteristics of the image.

“There is beauty everywhere. All one has to do is open their eyes and see it.”

October 21, 2019

Hello, World!

This is the home page of Eric Lease Morgan: An artist's eduction. It is the “place” where I plan to post & make available things like paintings, drawing, sketches, photographs, ceramics, handmade books, music, etc. Wish me luck.