'Cobalt and Peach', new paintings by Mark Morris

About

‘Cobalt and Peach', an exhibition of new paintings by Mark Morris Having contributed to group exhibitions at the White Lion Street Gallery since 2010, artist Mark Morris now has a solo show of more than 40 new paintings in the Tenby venue. The streets of Tenby itself provide subject matter for about half of the paintings with views within and from the town. People are featured doing ordinary things but elevated by the artists' acute observation, his imagination and memories and his considerable skill. Other locations depicted include Carmarthen, Cardiff, London and Cologne. Despite taking the pragmatic route to a maths degree and teaching, Mark's passion was always for drawing. He analysed the techniques of artists shown in the Tate from his early teens and experimented with watercolour. In the early days he painted with just three colours until he was confident of his ability to create any colour he needed. He started to produce paintings he felt he could show and his first exhibition was in Carmarthen, his home town; since then he has also been showing regularly in Tenby, Swansea and Cardiff. Turner, the Impressionists, especially Monet and Degas, were early fascinations for him. Contemporary artists, like the impasto and collage work of David Tress, and the close toned paintings of Andrew Douglas Forbes locally, continue to inspire him, with Nathan Ford's enigmatic figures and townscapes remaining his favourite. Though working ‘en plein air' whenever he has the opportunity, Mark's output is often studio based and concentrated into school holiday periods. His current palette now includes more vivid colours. He sometimes draws in pastel but always now paints in acrylic, working on a ‘broken' background and allowing strong colour to ‘leak' through. With several paintings in progress at any one time, Mark works in stages on each until satisfied with the result. A painting could take him anything from 2 days to many months to be pronounced finished. ‘Cobalt and Peach', the title of the exhibition, refers to the colours he most often reached for while painting the work for this exhibition. It opens on Saturday 31st March, with an opportunity to meet the artist in the afternoon from 2 to 4pm, and continues until 28th April, daily from 10 to 5 (Closed Wednesdays). The gallery is situated in White Lion Street, close to Tenby North Beach and the exhibition can be viewed on their website: www.artmatters.org.uk. For further information telephone: 01834 843375.