Work practices

A W Morton is an artist who works with oils, watercolours, collage/mixed media and drawings, in both traditional and semi-abstract styles. His collective works include landscapes, architecture, still life etc.

An artist and teacher of some 40 years experience, Bill's whole approach to his work is predicated on an extensive knowledge of theory and a commanding control of technique. Indeed a thorough knowledge of technique is the very ticket to freedom of expression; extensive knowledge and skill frees the artist to focus more energy on the intrinsic, empowering and creative part of the enterprise.

In his day-to-day art practice Bill works almost exclusively on location. Apart from the obvious benefits of this for commission work, he believes emphatically in the considerable advantages of such an approach. Even where an in-studio easel painting such as an oil on canvas is to be done, the work is always preceded by extensive on-location work, which takes the form of sustained general studies, notational sketches and detailed drawings.

For an artist who makes art from the observed world, from things all about him/her, working directly from the natural is imperative. For the essential qualities of a subject to be captured with any measure of success, superficial observations or the second-hand information from the camera is never enough.

The old adage is never more valid here: ‘When artists paint and draw, they do so through all five senses—and simultaneously’. The degree of sensibility, the levels of awareness needed, are only possible with an intimate contact with the subject characterised by an extended and concentrated focus on the subject.

All Bill’s work is individual—no two pictures are alike or even vaguely similar. Bill regards this as a key part of the challenge of being creative, to go on producing work but never repeating an image. Each picture is a fresh new original, a one-of-a-kind. Although Bill is sometimes inspired to revisit an old subject, the challenge then becomes to find a new aspect, a new angle or different composition relating to the subject. Thus anyone who buys an artwork of Bill’s can be assured that it will be a one-off original and unique among his body of work.