Brought to you by
Strathearn Gallery
HE is best known as a painter of Scottish landscapes, but there is something else which John Lowrie Morrison’s paintings have in common: almost all of them feature the sea.
For the first time, in his new exhibition Morrison & The Sea - The Rocks - The Cliffs for the Strathearn Gallery in Crieff, the best-selling artist will focus on exploring his relationship with the sea, from crashing breakers to gently lapping waves.
He says the sea has fascinated him all his life. “My father’s family is from the Isle of Harris and my dad spent time working on fishing boats in the Minch, so I grew up listening to his stories and they have stayed with me all my life.”
Recently he learned about another personal connection to the ocean in his family history. “Last year, a Morrison cousin got in touch to tell me that he had discovered that my great grandfather, Murdoch Morrison, was a lighthouse keeper’s assistant. He worked in lighthouses all over Scotland in the 1860s.
“I couldn’t believe it when I heard that! I love lighthouses and have been painting them all my life. Suddenly it made sense: that’s why I love the sea, that’s why I love lighthouses - I have the sea in my blood!”
The 50 new paintings in Morrison & The Sea feature a range of locations, from the cliffs of Mangersta on the Isle of Lewis to the spectacular “Gauldrons” of Machrihanish.
John says: “It’s an amazing place. The water will be quite quiet and then a wave will come in and it will suddenly roar. People thought there was something bewitched about it which is why they called it The Gauldrons. I’ve painted it a number of times, and I kept coming back to it in this show.”
As always, colour is important. John says: “A pillar of expressionism is to distort and use colour with the aim of expressing an emotional experience rather than a physical reality. Colour is very important to my work - the colours tell the story.”
Susan Bennett, owner of the Strathearn Gallery, said: “We are delighted and honoured to welcome John back to the gallery for a solo exhibition in the gallery’s 30th anniversary year.
“The colours and stories in the paintings spark a profound connection with viewers and John’s work is rightly coveted by art lovers around the world.”
Morrison & The Sea - The Rocks - The Cliffs by John Lowrie Morrison OBE, 4th May - 2nd June at The Strathearn Gallery, 32 West High Street, Crieff, PH7 4DL.
Click here www.strathearn-gallery.com
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here