2.12.12
Welcome to Mitchell Morton's website....
Welcome to Mitchell Morton's website... take your time and browse around as if you were strolling in an art gallery. Email Mitchell if you have any questions or art inquires.
Mitchell Morton is recognized Internationally
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| Mitchell Morton, Artist |
By BRAD RICH
Tideland News Writer
Article HERE...
The accolades keep rolling in for Hubert-based artist Mitchell Morton, as his poster for the 2012 N.C. Seafood Festival has taken the silver medal in a premier international competition.
The acrylic painting, titled “Fruits of the Sea,” won the second-place award in the commemorative poster division of the International Festivals and Events Association’s IFEA/Haas & Wilkerson Pinnacle Awards Competition at the Annual IFEA Convention & Expo.
The competition divides entries into categories depending upon the total budget for the festivals. The seafood festival, held annually in Morehead City the first weekend of October, is in the category for events with budgets of $250,000 to $749,000.
That category is more or less in the middle range. For example, the Time-Warner Barbecue and Blues Festival in Charlotte is in the under-$250,000 classification, while the Kentucky Derby Festival in Louisville is in the over-$1.5 million.
The gold medal winner in Morton’s category was the St. Louis Art Fair, and the bronze medal went to the Cincinnati International Wine Festival.
“They (festival officials) entered it, and I was very pleased to learn that it placed,” Morton said. “They said it was the first time that had happened for the festival. It’s some recognition for me, which is great, but I was really happy that it’s also some good recognition for the festival.”
Morton, a founding member of the Onslow Outdoor Painters Society, better known as OOPS, is a self-taught painter, who in 2007, after years of painting houses for a living and doing art for fun, began to show his works in galleries and enter them in competitions.
His painting of a pelican on the stern of a boat at Phillips Seafood in Swansboro won him the Onslow Art Society’s Best Artist award from Images 2011.
His works – a combination of realism with what he concedes is a hint of impressionism inspired by masters like Monet and Renoir – have won recognition all over the region. He’s had a painting in the permanent collection in the Randall Library at UNC-Wilmington since 2008, and has others in private collections all over North Carolina and in many other states.
Another painting took second place in the prestigious Bank of the Arts Show in New Bern in 2010. He won a best in show at Coastal Carolina Community College in 2009, won the same Onslow Art Society contest and finished second in the Beaufort Fine Art Show that same year. Some of his works have sold for upwards of $2,000, and his paintings are in, among others, the Tidewater Gallery in Swansboro and the Art Works Gallery in New Bern.
The poster art competition silver medal is his first international recognition. The seafood festival painting, he said, took him two or three days, although he admits most of that time, probably 80 percent of it, was spent “thinking.” That’s normal for a painting, he said.
“You have an idea, and you start on it, then you do a little and think about it some more,” he said. “It’s a process of getting what’s in your head onto the canvas. In this case, I did the boats first, then had to figure out what else to do.
“I had the idea of a plate of seafood, to show the ‘harvest of the sea,’ but the question was how to show that. I thought about doing it in a restaurant, with a lot of people at tables, but I finally decided to just have it on a table that really could be anywhere, outside or just in a quiet room. The idea was to make it more personal. A single platter, I think, just made it more personal, more intimate, so people could connect with it one-to-one.”
The painting didn’t even start out, consciously, as an entry for the seafood festival poster.
“It was kind of in the back of my mind, but when I was working on it some other people kind of encouraged me to enter it, so I did,” he said.
The IF&EA competition for more than 50 years has recognized outstanding accomplishments and top quality creative, promotional, operational and community outreach programs and materials produced by festivals and events around the world.
It strives for the highest degree of excellence in festival and event promotions and operations, and, according to its website, “has raised the standards and quality of the festivals and events industry to new levels. From events large or small, cities, festivals, chambers, universities, parks and recreation departments, vendors and suppliers, and everything in between, events and promotions of nearly every type and size … have the opportunity to be recognized.”
The international recognition for Morton is another major step for someone who until middle age never thought of himself as a serious artist.
“Growing up, when I was little, I started drawing and stuff probably as soon as I could get to the wall with a crayon, I guess, and right away I was pretty good at carving things, little animals, out of bars of soap,” Morton said in a previous interview, after winning the 2011 Onslow award. “But I never really got into it.”
Instead, like many people who grew up near the White Oak River, Morton worked on the water a lot, on shrimp trawlers, pulling nets and in fish houses. Eventually, his predilection toward paint took him into a career as a house painter; he owned and operated Morton’s Painting for years.
But all along, people knew he could paint more than just the interior and exterior of houses. He painted still lifes for pleasure, so many of them that his wife, Penny, eventually started urging him to do something with them “because the house got full of ’em.”
For a time, Morton served as a caregiver for his mother. But when she passed away at age 99, and the couple’s children had moved out of the house, he had more time. Penny’s urgings finally prevailed and he started, tentatively at first, entering shows. Success, to his surprise, was almost instant.
“I always kind of felt like I could do it,” Morton said. “But it took that motivation, that urging, to get me to do it, and to keep at it, and to develop whatever talent I had. I just kept at it, kept looking at other people’s work and learning more and more, figuring out how they handled different situations and materials.
“It’s like learning the guitar or anything else. If you maybe have a little bit of natural ability, a little talent, the more you do it the more you learn about styles and the better you get. Eventually you develop your own style.”
11.6.12
Mitchell busy at "Arts by the Sea" Festival...
Mitchell recently had a busy day signing NC Seafood posters at the "Arts by the Sea" Festival at Tidewater Gallery in Swansboro. Mitchell was plein air painting outside the gallery but spent most of the day signing posters... thanks to everyone who purchased a poster, a painting, and stopped by to talk to Mitchell.
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| Arts by the Sea Festival Swansboro, NC June 9, 2012 |
6.6.12
Jacksonville Daily News interview with artist, Mitchell Morton
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| Mitchell Morton, artist. Photo by Don Bryan. |
Finding an image that represents the vast waters and breathtaking landscapes along coastal North Carolina is as effortless as viewing the paintings of artist Mitchell Morton.
Morton’s lifelong adoration of the coast can be found splashed among many canvasses in the area, but his largest canvas yet will be this year’s The North Carolina Seafood Festival. Morton’s painting “Fruits of the Sea” was selected as the official poster for the festival, which will be held Oct. 5-7 in Morehead City. The Onslow County native said it was an honor to know that his work would represent the second largest festival in the state.
“Being the North Carolina Seafood Festival, it really expands the area that my work can cover and allows a wider range of exposure,” Morton said. “I’m very excited; it’s one of the highlights of my life.”
Each year, artists submit pieces of work and the Seafood Festival committee selects one piece. Morton said that he submitted a painting for the first time this year. The N.C. Seafood Festival Board of Directors and U.S. Cellular recently honored Morton at the 2012 Commemorative Poster Unveiling at the Train Depot in Morehead City. Viewers will have a chance to see the original painting in various locations until October and Morton will sign copies of the commemorative poster at the Arts by the Sea Festival on June 9 beginning at 9 a.m.
The painting depicts a familiar viewpoint, a plate of steamed oysters and a background of ships at dock, including one ship named “Miss Irene.” Morton wanted to emphasize the importance of the fishermen who bring in the harvest of seafood and the people who buy and consume it.
“My concept was really to relate the harvest to the seafood, a lot of work goes into harvesting but with the consumer it makes it full circle,” Morton said. “It was during the time of Hurricane Irene that I started working on the painting … that boat was originally blank and it was actually my wife who said to name it Irene.”
Morton grew up along the White Oak River and the Queens Creek area near Swansboro. As a child, Morton said that he used art as a form of entertainment and spent hours creating drawing and small sculptures out of household items.
“I used to take my mother’s Ivory soap and a butter knife started carving things and it was just intriguing to me,” Morton said.
As young man, Morton briefly worked in the seafood industry on shrimp trawlers and at seafood houses. From the harvesting of seafood to serving it on a platter, Morton said that every part of the cycle is valuable to livelihood of the industry.
“I worked a short amount of time but enough to know that it is a lot of hard work and it’s interesting and a lot goes into harvesting North Carolina Seafood,” Morton said. “I respect the people who do it but without the consumer that wouldn’t work either.”
Morton decided to pursue painting after the responsibilities of adulthood eased after his two children left home. He began to look outside of the window of his home for inspiration and the ideas for his work blossomed with each painting.
“I’m 64 and I kind of started on a new adventure in life about four years ago and I started painting and presenting my art to the public,” Morton said. “When something comes up I pursue it. You can’t have something you’ve never had if you don’t do something you’ve never done.”
As a founding member of the Onslow Outdoor Painters Society, or OOPS, Morton said he developed confidence and friendship with other artists who wanted to explore new ways to expand their creative abilities using nature and imagination. A self-taught artist, Morton has worked in a variety of mediums including oils, pastel and mixed media but primarily uses acrylic to turn ordinary objects into colorful memories of his outdoor destinations.
“It has really helped me to grow and meet new challenges and pursue different avenues with my work; so far I have been really happy,” Morton said. “I do some portrait work, but landscapes have been my focus. I’ve done some in the mountains but I primarily do work of the coast.”
Morton’s work has won several awards in local shows, including the Onslow Art Society “Images” show, Coastal Carolina Community College and the Beaufort County Fine art show. His pieces can be also found hanging in the Tidewater Gallery in Swansboro and the Art Works Gallery in New Bern. Morton said that he never runs of out ideas and inspiration when it comes to the coast.
“I live in a beautiful place, and there’s a variety of things to paint and many beautiful places to paint,” he said. “It’s like an endless source of material to work from. I’m trying to relay a message of what I’m visually seeing.”
Together Morton and his wife Penny live in Hubert and provide a specialized painting business for interiors and furniture. Morton said he hopes that his newly found success is an inspiration to others to explore the coast and utilize their divinely given talents.
“I’m thankful that God has allowed me to have a certain amount of talent, and I’m trying to utilize it in anyway I can,” he said. “Hopefully if I’m doing something to help someone else, I encourage them to go ahead and pursue their goals. If the door is not open, keep on knocking and God will make a way for you.”
Morton’s lifelong adoration of the coast can be found splashed among many canvasses in the area, but his largest canvas yet will be this year’s The North Carolina Seafood Festival. Morton’s painting “Fruits of the Sea” was selected as the official poster for the festival, which will be held Oct. 5-7 in Morehead City. The Onslow County native said it was an honor to know that his work would represent the second largest festival in the state.
“Being the North Carolina Seafood Festival, it really expands the area that my work can cover and allows a wider range of exposure,” Morton said. “I’m very excited; it’s one of the highlights of my life.”
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| Offcial poster from Mitchell's painting, "Fruits of the Sea." |
The painting depicts a familiar viewpoint, a plate of steamed oysters and a background of ships at dock, including one ship named “Miss Irene.” Morton wanted to emphasize the importance of the fishermen who bring in the harvest of seafood and the people who buy and consume it.
“My concept was really to relate the harvest to the seafood, a lot of work goes into harvesting but with the consumer it makes it full circle,” Morton said. “It was during the time of Hurricane Irene that I started working on the painting … that boat was originally blank and it was actually my wife who said to name it Irene.”
Morton grew up along the White Oak River and the Queens Creek area near Swansboro. As a child, Morton said that he used art as a form of entertainment and spent hours creating drawing and small sculptures out of household items.
“I used to take my mother’s Ivory soap and a butter knife started carving things and it was just intriguing to me,” Morton said.
As young man, Morton briefly worked in the seafood industry on shrimp trawlers and at seafood houses. From the harvesting of seafood to serving it on a platter, Morton said that every part of the cycle is valuable to livelihood of the industry.
“I worked a short amount of time but enough to know that it is a lot of hard work and it’s interesting and a lot goes into harvesting North Carolina Seafood,” Morton said. “I respect the people who do it but without the consumer that wouldn’t work either.”
Morton decided to pursue painting after the responsibilities of adulthood eased after his two children left home. He began to look outside of the window of his home for inspiration and the ideas for his work blossomed with each painting.
“I’m 64 and I kind of started on a new adventure in life about four years ago and I started painting and presenting my art to the public,” Morton said. “When something comes up I pursue it. You can’t have something you’ve never had if you don’t do something you’ve never done.”
As a founding member of the Onslow Outdoor Painters Society, or OOPS, Morton said he developed confidence and friendship with other artists who wanted to explore new ways to expand their creative abilities using nature and imagination. A self-taught artist, Morton has worked in a variety of mediums including oils, pastel and mixed media but primarily uses acrylic to turn ordinary objects into colorful memories of his outdoor destinations.
“It has really helped me to grow and meet new challenges and pursue different avenues with my work; so far I have been really happy,” Morton said. “I do some portrait work, but landscapes have been my focus. I’ve done some in the mountains but I primarily do work of the coast.”
Morton’s work has won several awards in local shows, including the Onslow Art Society “Images” show, Coastal Carolina Community College and the Beaufort County Fine art show. His pieces can be also found hanging in the Tidewater Gallery in Swansboro and the Art Works Gallery in New Bern. Morton said that he never runs of out ideas and inspiration when it comes to the coast.
“I live in a beautiful place, and there’s a variety of things to paint and many beautiful places to paint,” he said. “It’s like an endless source of material to work from. I’m trying to relay a message of what I’m visually seeing.”
Together Morton and his wife Penny live in Hubert and provide a specialized painting business for interiors and furniture. Morton said he hopes that his newly found success is an inspiration to others to explore the coast and utilize their divinely given talents.
“I’m thankful that God has allowed me to have a certain amount of talent, and I’m trying to utilize it in anyway I can,” he said. “Hopefully if I’m doing something to help someone else, I encourage them to go ahead and pursue their goals. If the door is not open, keep on knocking and God will make a way for you.”
24.5.12
2012 NC Seafood Festival Poster Unveiled May 22, 2012.
Seafood Festival Poster Unveiled...
Mitchell Morton painting "Fruits of the Sea" xhosen as the official painting for the 2012 North Carolina Seafood Festival in Morehead City.
The North Carolina Seafood Festival Board of Directors and U.S. Cellular held the 2012 NC Seafood Festival Wine Selection and 2012 Commemorative Poster Unveiling honoring artist Mitchell Morton, Thursday May 22n at the Train Depot in Morehead City.
Guests were invited to sample and vote for the NC Seafood Festival Wine Winner and took part in the unveiling of the 2012 NC Seafood Festival poster, “Fruits of the Sea”, painted by acclaimed costal artist Mitchell Morton.
Art, to me, says Mitchell, “Is a form of communication. I look for subject matter that invites and inspires. My main objectives is to take the ordinary, and make it extraordinary, using color, coupled with the talent God allotted me”.
No stranger to the coastal way of life, Mitchell Morton is a native of eastern North Carolina. The views, sounds and smells of the coastal area motivate him as an artist. Working with the seafood industry on shrimp trawlers, in seafood houses and pulling nets as a young man, he appreciates the hard work and determination that comes from being a fisherman.
Mitchell has received numerous awards in shows across eastern North Carolina as well as having work in many private collections in NC, and around the United States.A self-taught artist, Mitchell is adept at working in a variety of art mediums; oil, acrylic, pastel and mixed media. Mitchell says, “My work in acrylic prevails while my work in oils constantly lingers in my mind”. As a founding member of OOPS (Onslow Outdoor Painters Society), Mitchell exchanges creative energy with fellow artists just as the old master did during other periods in history.
Click HERE to read the rest of the story, see where posters are available for purchase, and find out where Mitchell's painting will be exhibited...
Mitchell Morton painting "Fruits of the Sea" xhosen as the official painting for the 2012 North Carolina Seafood Festival in Morehead City.
The North Carolina Seafood Festival Board of Directors and U.S. Cellular held the 2012 NC Seafood Festival Wine Selection and 2012 Commemorative Poster Unveiling honoring artist Mitchell Morton, Thursday May 22n at the Train Depot in Morehead City.
Guests were invited to sample and vote for the NC Seafood Festival Wine Winner and took part in the unveiling of the 2012 NC Seafood Festival poster, “Fruits of the Sea”, painted by acclaimed costal artist Mitchell Morton.
No stranger to the coastal way of life, Mitchell Morton is a native of eastern North Carolina. The views, sounds and smells of the coastal area motivate him as an artist. Working with the seafood industry on shrimp trawlers, in seafood houses and pulling nets as a young man, he appreciates the hard work and determination that comes from being a fisherman.
Mitchell has received numerous awards in shows across eastern North Carolina as well as having work in many private collections in NC, and around the United States.A self-taught artist, Mitchell is adept at working in a variety of art mediums; oil, acrylic, pastel and mixed media. Mitchell says, “My work in acrylic prevails while my work in oils constantly lingers in my mind”. As a founding member of OOPS (Onslow Outdoor Painters Society), Mitchell exchanges creative energy with fellow artists just as the old master did during other periods in history.
Click HERE to read the rest of the story, see where posters are available for purchase, and find out where Mitchell's painting will be exhibited...
23.5.12
Mitchell Morton ~ Artist
Mitchell Morton, artist, a native of Onslow County, conveys a bit of an old sailor’s image – wise, pensive. His coastal lore becomes more pronounced as you engage him in conversation. “I love to see, smell, and savor the coastal areas. There’s nothing that quite compares to the smell of an ocean wind or the rustle of the marsh grass on a windy day.”“Art, to me,” says Mitchell “is a form of communication. I look for subject matter that motivates and invites. My main objective is to take the ordinary and make is extraordinary using color coupled with the talent God allotted me.” A self-taught artist, Mitchell is adept at working in a variety of art mediums (oil, acrylic, pastel, mixed media). Mitchell says, “My work in acrylic prevails while my work in oils constantly lingers in my mind.” As a founding member of OOPS (Onslow Outdoor Painters Society), I exchange creative energy with fellow artists just as the old masters did during the impressionistic movement. The freedom of artistic expression abounds! You can view Mitchell’s works at: Tidewater Gallery, Swansboro, NC; rt Works Gallery, New Bern, NC; Jacksonville-Onslow Council for the Arts; Lenoir Co. Arts Council, Kinston NC; One piece (Pre-Teen Dream) is in a permanent collection with UNC-W, Randall Library, Wilmington NC.
22.5.12
Poster Unveiling For 26th Annual NC Seafood Festival highlighted on WITN Channel 7 News
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| Mitchell Morton with his painting selected as the official painting for the poster for the 2012 Morehead City North Carolina Seafood Festival. |
The North Carolina Seafood Festival is less than five months away and Tuesday the official poster for the event was unveiled.
Eastern NC artist Mitchell Morton was the winner with his design that depicts the harvest at sea and on the table. His painting is titled "Fruits Of The Sea."
The poster unveiling was held at the Morehead City train depot and will accompany all the advertising and promotion for the festival.
The 26th annual NCSF runs October 5-7 along the Morehead City waterfront.
WITN is a proud sponsor of the festival.
21.5.12
Mitchell Morton Interview by Brad Rich of the Tideland News
Posted: Wednesday, January 4, 2012 12:00 am
Tideland News WriterIt somehow seems appropriate that Hubert-based, 63-year-old artist Mitchell Morton is a founding member of the Onslow Outdoor Painters Society, much better known as OOPS.After all, “oops” might be the perfect term to describe how Morton feels about the astonishing success that has come his way since he evolved from painting houses to painting his increasingly popular, valuable and well-known works of art.
“I’m as amazed at it as anybody else,” said Morton, whose painting of a pelican on the stern of a boat at Phillips Seafood in Swansboro recently won him the Onslow Art Society’s Best Artist award from Images 2011. “I’m like, ‘Gosh, how did this happen?’ There weren’t art classes when I was in school, and I grew up in a neighborhood where most people worked on cars, things like that. I’ve really been kind of intimidated by this (success).”
And Morton’s success hasn’t been confined to Onslow County. His works – a combination of realism with what he concedes is a hint of impressionism inspired by masters like Monet and Renoir – have won recognition all over the region. He’s had a painting in the permanent collection in the Randall Library at UNC-Wilmington since 2008, and has others in private collections all over North Carolina and in many other states.
Another painting took second place in the prestigious Bank of the Arts Show in New Bern in 2010. He won a best in show at Coastal Carolina Community College in 2009, won the same Onslow Art Society contest and finished second in the Beaufort Fine Art Show that same year. Last year, he was asked to donate a work to the Carolina Chamber Music Festival. Some of his works have sold for upwards of $2,000, and his paintings are in, among others, the Tidewater Gallery in Swansboro and the Art Works Gallery in New Bern.
Not bad for a down-to-earth guy, with no formal training, who just started doing this in 2007.
“Growing up, when I was little, I started drawing and stuff probably as soon as I could get to the wall with a crayon, I guess, and right away I was pretty good at carving things, little animals, out of bars of soap,” said Morton, who was born and grew up in Swansboro and graduated from Swansboro High School in 1966. “But I never really got into it.”
Instead, like many people who grew up near the White Oak River, Morton worked on the water a lot, on shrimp trawlers, pulling nets and in fish houses. Eventually, his predilection toward paint took him into a career as a house painter; he owned and operated Morton’s Painting for years.
But all along, people knew he could paint more than just the interior and exterior of houses. He painted still lifes for pleasure, so many of them that his wife, Penny, eventually started urging him to do something with them “because the house got full of ’em.”
For a time, Morton served as a caregiver for his mother. But when she passed away at age 99, and the couple’s children had moved out of the house, he had more time. Penny’s urgings finally prevailed and he started, tentatively at first, entering shows. Success, to his surprise, was almost instant.
“I always kind of felt like I could do it,” Morton said. “But it took that motivation, that urging, to get me to do it, and to keep at it, and to develop whatever talent I had. I just kept at it, kept looking at other people’s work and learning more and more, figuring out how they handled different situations and materials.
“It’s like learning the guitar or anything else. If you maybe have a little bit of natural ability, a little talent, the more you do it the more you learn about styles and the better you get. Eventually you develop your own style.”
Morton’s subject matter is certainly varied. Although he leans toward water-oriented works – quiet, secluded areas of Queens Creek, where he often fishes, are among his favorite settings – he’s won awards for works that range from volleyball (his granddaughter is in a painting he did called “I Got It” that came from a Swansboro High School state playoff match) to portraits (his wife’s grandfather Palmer Holland is the subject of “r-Ember’-ing”). The latter, the second-prize winner at the New Bern Bank of the Arts show, depicts Holland poking at a fire in a woodstove in his barn, which was sort of his “escape” place at the family home near the Fairway Restaurant off NC 58.
Ideas, Morton said, can come from almost anywhere. The pelican painting came from a photo taken by local resident Jason Denny.
“There was just something about it, something unique that stayed with me after I saw the photo,” Morton said. “We all harbor a lot of thoughts. I like to say my brain is just a junkyard of ideas. You see something and you kind of stick it away and think, well, I might want to do something with that someday. The photo had really caught my attention, so I thought maybe the painting would catch some attention, too.”
Pelicans also had been on his mind a lot, because so many had been turning up dead in local waters for reasons not entirely clear. And the commercial fishing industry, is also, in a real sense, threatened. A germ of an idea became a gem.
Recently, Morton said, he was fishing around for ideas in downtown New Bern, one of eastern North Carolina’s prime cultural centers, when a really large man in a bright red shirt rode by on a small Harley motorcycle. Then he rode by again, and again. Eventually, Morton said, “I just snapped a shot. Again, there was just something about it that stayed with me. I guess it’s just that he looked too big for the bike. So I painted it and called it “Whopper on a Chopper. It’s hasn’t sold yet, but it’s gotten more comments than almost anything I have done. I live in fear of him finding out I did it. But I did shoot it (the picture) from behind, and he had a helmet on.”
He also likes to look for contrasts – between the old and the new, for example, or the large and the small. That’s fairly easy to do in coastal North Carolina, which in recent years has been undergoing rapid transformations in building styles and land-uses: fish houses giving way to modern office buildings or condos, mansions going up beside bungalows. Like many artists, Morton often finds himself drawn to things that are disappearing; it’s an urge to visually preserve picturesque scenes for posterity, to record places that once served as gathering places and were important in people’s lives, such as general stores or the aforementioned fish houses.
It is hard for Morton to say how long it takes him to do an “average” painting. For one thing, there’s no “average” painting, because each one is unique. Sometimes, he said it might take only two to three hours. Others might take eight hours or more. But, although he “works” at his art every day, the length of time he devotes to it varies widely, from a few minutes to hours.
And paintings, he said, are in a sense a collaborative effort. Artists in OOPS, he said, get together and critique each other’s works in progress, sometimes suggesting changes. Sometimes those suggestions result in revisions, sometimes they don’t. For example, Morton said, some said the award-winning pelican painting needed the bird’s head a little to the left, off-center, with more of a curving line leading the viewer down to the bird, the main subject. He tried it that way, and although that might have followed the unwritten “laws” of art a little more precisely, he didn’t like it as much.
Those closest to the artist often offer critiques – in Morton’s case, his wife, Penny. She might, for example, look at a painting and simply say “‘I don’t like it,’ or ‘What the heck is that over there?’” he said.
Sometimes those kinds of criticisms can shape a painting’s final version. But Morton conceded, in the end, an artist really paints to please himself, not others.
And, about those “laws” … Morton, being completely self-taught, for many years didn’t really know there were any. As he’s acquired more formal art knowledge, he knows more about them. But, he said, “You sort of need to know them” so you can break them, or least bend them.
Many people, Morton said, think color is the primary concern for a painter, but for him, at least, it’s among the least important factors when actually composing the picture. More important to him are the “values” of the colors, the lightness or darkness that give solidity and depth to the objects.
“Values” can be produced not only by the colors and hues, but also by techniques, such as stippling or hatching. And changes in value – whether sudden or gradual – can help the artist more fully express the idea he’s trying to get across.
Thus, a painting might look better, or more “real,” if an object in it is a completely different color than the object in real life or in a photo.
For example, Morton noted that there was no purple at all in the room in which he painted Holland in “r-Ember’-ing.” Yet the painting is largely shades of purple; part of the beauty is the contrast between the oranges in the wood stove and on the man’s face and those purples in the background. Sometimes, Morton said, he’ll photograph a painting in black and white to get a better feel for those important “values.”
Music is also important when he’s painting. For example, Morton said he did the award-winning volleyball match while listening to a rock radio station “as loud as I could stand it,” while more contemplative paintings, say the ones of Queens Creek, usually take shape to quieter music. For the painting donated to the Chamber Music Festival, he was asked, specifically, to paint to a specific classical music piece composed by French master Claude Debussy. He knew very little about classical chamber music, but said the mood did inspire the result. Whatever the music, he said it shows up in the “rhythm” of the painting.
Another factor in Morton’s art, he said, is his long background in painting houses.
“Because of that, I think, I don’t ‘fear’ the paint,” he said. “Paint is paint. Some people are intimidated by it, intimidated by putting it on. I’m not.”
In the end, no artist can be sure of all the elements that influence a work. And sometimes, Morton said, it’s a lot simpler than one might think. One of his favorite quotes came from a decoy carver, who had laboriously carved a block of wood into a picture-perfect duck.
“He said, ‘I just cut away everything that wasn’t a duck,’” Morton said. “I really liked that. I feel like that’s kind of what I do sometimes with painting, like what I did with those bars of soap when I was little.”
“I’m as amazed at it as anybody else,” said Morton, whose painting of a pelican on the stern of a boat at Phillips Seafood in Swansboro recently won him the Onslow Art Society’s Best Artist award from Images 2011. “I’m like, ‘Gosh, how did this happen?’ There weren’t art classes when I was in school, and I grew up in a neighborhood where most people worked on cars, things like that. I’ve really been kind of intimidated by this (success).”
And Morton’s success hasn’t been confined to Onslow County. His works – a combination of realism with what he concedes is a hint of impressionism inspired by masters like Monet and Renoir – have won recognition all over the region. He’s had a painting in the permanent collection in the Randall Library at UNC-Wilmington since 2008, and has others in private collections all over North Carolina and in many other states.
Another painting took second place in the prestigious Bank of the Arts Show in New Bern in 2010. He won a best in show at Coastal Carolina Community College in 2009, won the same Onslow Art Society contest and finished second in the Beaufort Fine Art Show that same year. Last year, he was asked to donate a work to the Carolina Chamber Music Festival. Some of his works have sold for upwards of $2,000, and his paintings are in, among others, the Tidewater Gallery in Swansboro and the Art Works Gallery in New Bern.
Not bad for a down-to-earth guy, with no formal training, who just started doing this in 2007.
“Growing up, when I was little, I started drawing and stuff probably as soon as I could get to the wall with a crayon, I guess, and right away I was pretty good at carving things, little animals, out of bars of soap,” said Morton, who was born and grew up in Swansboro and graduated from Swansboro High School in 1966. “But I never really got into it.”
Instead, like many people who grew up near the White Oak River, Morton worked on the water a lot, on shrimp trawlers, pulling nets and in fish houses. Eventually, his predilection toward paint took him into a career as a house painter; he owned and operated Morton’s Painting for years.
But all along, people knew he could paint more than just the interior and exterior of houses. He painted still lifes for pleasure, so many of them that his wife, Penny, eventually started urging him to do something with them “because the house got full of ’em.”
For a time, Morton served as a caregiver for his mother. But when she passed away at age 99, and the couple’s children had moved out of the house, he had more time. Penny’s urgings finally prevailed and he started, tentatively at first, entering shows. Success, to his surprise, was almost instant.
“I always kind of felt like I could do it,” Morton said. “But it took that motivation, that urging, to get me to do it, and to keep at it, and to develop whatever talent I had. I just kept at it, kept looking at other people’s work and learning more and more, figuring out how they handled different situations and materials.
“It’s like learning the guitar or anything else. If you maybe have a little bit of natural ability, a little talent, the more you do it the more you learn about styles and the better you get. Eventually you develop your own style.”
Morton’s subject matter is certainly varied. Although he leans toward water-oriented works – quiet, secluded areas of Queens Creek, where he often fishes, are among his favorite settings – he’s won awards for works that range from volleyball (his granddaughter is in a painting he did called “I Got It” that came from a Swansboro High School state playoff match) to portraits (his wife’s grandfather Palmer Holland is the subject of “r-Ember’-ing”). The latter, the second-prize winner at the New Bern Bank of the Arts show, depicts Holland poking at a fire in a woodstove in his barn, which was sort of his “escape” place at the family home near the Fairway Restaurant off NC 58.
Ideas, Morton said, can come from almost anywhere. The pelican painting came from a photo taken by local resident Jason Denny.
“There was just something about it, something unique that stayed with me after I saw the photo,” Morton said. “We all harbor a lot of thoughts. I like to say my brain is just a junkyard of ideas. You see something and you kind of stick it away and think, well, I might want to do something with that someday. The photo had really caught my attention, so I thought maybe the painting would catch some attention, too.”
Pelicans also had been on his mind a lot, because so many had been turning up dead in local waters for reasons not entirely clear. And the commercial fishing industry, is also, in a real sense, threatened. A germ of an idea became a gem.
Recently, Morton said, he was fishing around for ideas in downtown New Bern, one of eastern North Carolina’s prime cultural centers, when a really large man in a bright red shirt rode by on a small Harley motorcycle. Then he rode by again, and again. Eventually, Morton said, “I just snapped a shot. Again, there was just something about it that stayed with me. I guess it’s just that he looked too big for the bike. So I painted it and called it “Whopper on a Chopper. It’s hasn’t sold yet, but it’s gotten more comments than almost anything I have done. I live in fear of him finding out I did it. But I did shoot it (the picture) from behind, and he had a helmet on.”
He also likes to look for contrasts – between the old and the new, for example, or the large and the small. That’s fairly easy to do in coastal North Carolina, which in recent years has been undergoing rapid transformations in building styles and land-uses: fish houses giving way to modern office buildings or condos, mansions going up beside bungalows. Like many artists, Morton often finds himself drawn to things that are disappearing; it’s an urge to visually preserve picturesque scenes for posterity, to record places that once served as gathering places and were important in people’s lives, such as general stores or the aforementioned fish houses.
It is hard for Morton to say how long it takes him to do an “average” painting. For one thing, there’s no “average” painting, because each one is unique. Sometimes, he said it might take only two to three hours. Others might take eight hours or more. But, although he “works” at his art every day, the length of time he devotes to it varies widely, from a few minutes to hours.
And paintings, he said, are in a sense a collaborative effort. Artists in OOPS, he said, get together and critique each other’s works in progress, sometimes suggesting changes. Sometimes those suggestions result in revisions, sometimes they don’t. For example, Morton said, some said the award-winning pelican painting needed the bird’s head a little to the left, off-center, with more of a curving line leading the viewer down to the bird, the main subject. He tried it that way, and although that might have followed the unwritten “laws” of art a little more precisely, he didn’t like it as much.
Those closest to the artist often offer critiques – in Morton’s case, his wife, Penny. She might, for example, look at a painting and simply say “‘I don’t like it,’ or ‘What the heck is that over there?’” he said.
Sometimes those kinds of criticisms can shape a painting’s final version. But Morton conceded, in the end, an artist really paints to please himself, not others.
And, about those “laws” … Morton, being completely self-taught, for many years didn’t really know there were any. As he’s acquired more formal art knowledge, he knows more about them. But, he said, “You sort of need to know them” so you can break them, or least bend them.
Many people, Morton said, think color is the primary concern for a painter, but for him, at least, it’s among the least important factors when actually composing the picture. More important to him are the “values” of the colors, the lightness or darkness that give solidity and depth to the objects.
“Values” can be produced not only by the colors and hues, but also by techniques, such as stippling or hatching. And changes in value – whether sudden or gradual – can help the artist more fully express the idea he’s trying to get across.
Thus, a painting might look better, or more “real,” if an object in it is a completely different color than the object in real life or in a photo.
For example, Morton noted that there was no purple at all in the room in which he painted Holland in “r-Ember’-ing.” Yet the painting is largely shades of purple; part of the beauty is the contrast between the oranges in the wood stove and on the man’s face and those purples in the background. Sometimes, Morton said, he’ll photograph a painting in black and white to get a better feel for those important “values.”
Music is also important when he’s painting. For example, Morton said he did the award-winning volleyball match while listening to a rock radio station “as loud as I could stand it,” while more contemplative paintings, say the ones of Queens Creek, usually take shape to quieter music. For the painting donated to the Chamber Music Festival, he was asked, specifically, to paint to a specific classical music piece composed by French master Claude Debussy. He knew very little about classical chamber music, but said the mood did inspire the result. Whatever the music, he said it shows up in the “rhythm” of the painting.
Another factor in Morton’s art, he said, is his long background in painting houses.
“Because of that, I think, I don’t ‘fear’ the paint,” he said. “Paint is paint. Some people are intimidated by it, intimidated by putting it on. I’m not.”
In the end, no artist can be sure of all the elements that influence a work. And sometimes, Morton said, it’s a lot simpler than one might think. One of his favorite quotes came from a decoy carver, who had laboriously carved a block of wood into a picture-perfect duck.
“He said, ‘I just cut away everything that wasn’t a duck,’” Morton said. “I really liked that. I feel like that’s kind of what I do sometimes with painting, like what I did with those bars of soap when I was little.”
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