Anne Morris (Dip.Fine Arts Otago )
I studied at the School of Fine Arts, Dunedin from 1980-1983, graduating with a Diploma of Fine Arts, majoring in painting. After travelling and living in the UK for several years I returned to live in Palmerston North in 1991.
2002, I held my first solo exhibition “Gardens”, at the Van Uffelen gallery, a series of garden scenes painted in acrylic on canvas.
2004 , My second solo exhibition entitled “Walk of Life” was shown at the Van Uffelen included portraiture and figure paintings in a mixture of acrylics and oils on canvas.
2009 , I was part of a joint exhibition at Square edge Art centre I exhibited a collection of Beach and Sea paintings, acrylic on canvas, and a series of small landscapes acrylic on wooden blocks.
2012, I held a exhibition at Square edge Art centre “Can’t see the wood for the trees” showing a collection of 17 large charcoal drawings on paper with images of trees, forests and landscapes.
2014, My exhibition “Walk with me” at Taylor Jensen gallery consisted of a collection of 50 small oil paintings on canvas and includes landscapes, forests and seascapes.
2017, "The Spaces between" at Taylor Jensen gallery, was a new collection of works, mainly landscapes and seascapes. There was a variety of mediums acrylics/oils/pencil and works ranged from large canvases to smaller framed pieces. Some of the canvases and frames were recycled from past pieces.
2018 The series of paintings “watercolours” was shown at the “Grey St. Gallery” in conjunction with the Manawatu Art trail.
2019 The “inheritance “ collection was shown at Joe Mc Menamins gallery in Feilding. Two portraits “planning the day” and “wedding day” were added to the portrait collection.
2020 Lockdown presented an opportunity to focus on a large charcoal work “stay home” currently I am working on a series of paintings entitled “land of the long white cloud”
2021 This year celebrates the 150th anniversary of the Manawatu. I’ve been researching the history of the region and have interpreted some of the historical black and white photos of landscapes and buildings, creating a series of drawings and paintings. An exhibition of my recent works will be shown at The Square Edge Arts Centre in Palmerston North. “Land of the long white cloud” 8th September - 4th October.
2022 After last year’s busy exhibition, I worked on some smaller paintings for joint exhibitions. “Define choice” was a response to the challenges we all faced through covid. I rediscovered my water colour pencils and drew a small series of images of my garden and a couple of some farm houses in the Manawatu.
I also completed a large Australian inspired painting “Red River Gums by the Golburn” and my favourite work this year “keep to the path”. A new direction began with a series of pen, ink and watercolour pencils. I’m starting my next collection of paintings soon inspired by a visit to Stewart Island.
2023 Thrilled to have had “Torrent” a small pen and ink drawing selected for the Parkin Drawing exhibition. I am enjoying the freedom of the inks/charcoals and pencils on paper. The storms, cyclones, floods and other recent environmental concerns are influencing my subject matter at the moment.
I’m exploring the use of waterbased oil paints, as seen in the “TeArakura” group of small paintings, and look forward to continuing with these as well as my larger acrylic paintings and drawing pieces. The “Rakiura” paintings are large acrylics on canvas, a couple more of these to come.
2024 This year started with a continuation of my black and white, charcoal and ink drawings, culminating in a couple of large works, one on paper and one on canvas capturing the power of the drawings on a larger format and bringing paint as a drawing medium into the mix.
I then found myself revisiting my love of old houses experimenting with some pencil, charcoal and watercoloured pencil drawings. I find I am using my waterbased oil paints a lot for my smaller landscape and house paintings, enjoying the extra drying time and blending of the paints.
With my larger paintings I still love the acrylic medium and being able to layer the colours and work more freely.