Congratulations to Sarah Morrison who placed as a finalist in the 5th Edition!

Who are you?

My name is Sarah Morrison, and I’m an emerging fantasy illustrator and portrait artist.  While being an artist was something I articulated from as early as age 6, it wasn't until college that I found fantasy illustration as my artistic direction.

After growing up a shy kid in Halifax, NS, Canada, I moved to Massachusetts, the USA with my father when I was 15.  I developed an extroverted side in my 20s - probably aided by my stint in retail management, and was encouraged as I discovered a love of costuming.  While I was working in retail full time, my husband was completing his education and I painted in my spare time (carving out a little of that time for my hobby of sewing).  At the beginning of 2019, I was free to leave retail in favour of pursuing my art career full time.

Most of my art is created in a three-foot by four-foot section of my living room, in the small apartment, I share with my husband, two cats, and our baby.  We maintain a highly decorated home where the walls are covered with art, every shelf holds a variety of curios, and LEDs ring the ceiling.  It feels like a very creative environment.

What inspired you to begin utilizing oil paint as a medium?

During my time in retail I was still very connected to the art world, as I worked at Utrecht Art Supplies (later Blick Art Materials).  I had numerous opportunities there to learn so much more about various materials than I had in school.  Soon after I started in 2005, a few of my coworkers convinced me to try oils.  I’d previously been dissatisfied with acrylics for various reasons, and oils did a lot of the things I couldn’t get acrylics to do, or did them much better, like nice gradations of color.

Can you discuss the inspiration and thought process behind your winning work "Justice"?

I frequently invite my friends to dress up for photoshoots which I do paintings from, and had originally completed a different painting of this particular friend in her grandmother’s satin dress.  She loved the piece but thought it was too small, so she decided that she really wanted to find a huge, ornate, gold frame, and commission me to do an epic portrait to fit it.  Once she found the frame, we brainstormed what kind of imagery she was looking for, and did a new photoshoot of her in that same dress.  She then provided me with an array of photos she had taken on vacation to choose from for use in the background, and we worked that out with additional details digitally before I translated everything over to paints.

What drew you to explore figures and fabric in your work?

I’ve always enjoyed drawing and painting figures, but fabric as a subject matter was a more gradual addition.  It was often present, in whatever costuming the people in my illustrations were wearing, and probably began taking on a greater role when I started doing costume creations of my own.

Ball-gowns had interested me from an early age, in part from having seen the 1956 movie adaptation of The King And I.  When a college friend of mine sewed a hoop-skirt and ball-gown for herself, I suddenly found myself inspired to make one, too, realizing that I already had the skills.  

With ballgowns and a lot of other fun fabrics making their way into my photoshoots, I found I appreciated the feeling of capturing the folds and textures.

What do you hope to communicate with your work?

I want to inspire a sense of wonder, and for my viewers to develop stories about what they’re seeing.  Fantasy has always been important to me, whether it be in the form of movies, books, or games.  There are so many stressful things going on in our lives, especially recently, and fantasies can allow us to take a break, relax a bit, and recharge ourselves.  Sometimes we lose sight of the more enjoyable parts of life when we’re too focused on the frustrating ones.

Do you have a particular piece that you view as your most accomplished? Why? 

Probably “The Duelist”.  I mentioned that I often have friends dress up for photoshoots, and this was my first completed painting from launching in that direction with my work.  It happens to be of my husband, and I enjoy how I captured his expression.  I also still feel like I did a pretty good job with the composition.

Can you sum up the totality of what your work represents in one word?

Escapism.  (That was easy)

Can you discuss why you chose painting as a medium for your work and voice as opposed to others?

I definitely feel more comfortable as a 2D artist, rather than a 3D artist.  And as a fantasy illustrator, I have frequently included fantastical creatures or settings into my works, which would be harder to do with a medium such as photography without using sculptural or digital elements.  Painting allows me to fuse the best bits of a photoshoot together with any other-worldly details I wish to include. Painting also gives me the ability to work with a figure separate from its setting.

Have you experimented with other mediums? If so, which ones and how?

I couldn’t possibly list everything I’ve ever experimented with, since I got to try out so many through my art supply retail job.  But there have certainly been ones I spent more time with than others.  Acrylics I mentioned already.  Watercolours and coloured pencils were something I also worked with for a long time, especially in college, and really enjoyed my time with them.  Every so often I pick them up to play with again, but I love oils so much more that I never stick with them for long.  

I have played with digital creation on and off since the ‘90s.  I don’t always like the disconnected feeling from not physically touching and manipulating the medium.  And getting a better, more immersive setup is cost-prohibitive.  So most of my digital work these days is prep-work for a painting, colour correction for publishing, and the occasional logo design.

Printmaking, however, is my other love.  I did a lot of relief (linoleum) and etching in college, and while etching is hard to do at home without a more substantial press setup, I do still break out the linoleum supplies semi-regularly to make cards and would like to develop an illustrative style with them for doing children’s book pieces.  I’ve also had the opportunity to play with laser cutting for relief printing, too.

Can you talk about your biggest learning experience during the process of creating your works?

Can I talk about two?

Have you ever had the experience of plateauing when learning a skill?  When you first start learning something sometimes you can improve quickly, but then that forward movement often slows down to a crawl.  I found myself on a plateau when I was living in Somerville, and realized I had the opportunity to take advantage of the fact that I was only a few blocks from the studio of a painter whose work I admired.  So I got to spend a few years studying under Jason Polins.  I previously hadn’t had formal training in oil paints - I was only self-taught.  Jason really helped me find that forward motion again.  My painting skills improved in both quality and speed during this time, and I really appreciate his role as a mentor for me.

I also was excited to sign up for Marc Scheff’s Illustration Basics class through SmArt School, which started the day I finally left my retail career behind.  I absorbed so much about best practices for developing a book cover illustration from start to finish.  And I re-developed my digital skills for use with the design stages as another way to speed up my process, and give me more freedom in testing concepts.

Can you discuss your biggest success since starting your artistic journey?

Actually having a publishing company reply back to me with a job was huge.  So much of trying to be an illustrator is “cold-call” emailing publishers and art directors, and either never hearing back, or just hearing that they’ll add you to their list.

What projects are you working on currently? Can you discuss them?

I completed a series of illustrations for a short children’s book (written by a friend’s father-in-law) in mid-2021 before giving birth to my child.  So one of my next projects will be setting up the page-layout files for publishing. 

Having mostly spent the last 6 months settling into my new role with my new baby, I have plans to use photos of them for at least one painting, while getting back into gear with developing my illustration career. 

Lastly, I like to ask everyone what advice they would give to their fellow artists/photographers, what is your advice?

Connect with people who help you grow and move forward with your passion whenever you can.  It can feel good to get “likes” and accolades, but simple appreciation doesn’t always help you advance.  It’s important to have people in our lives who can actively assist us in striving towards improvement - and it’s even better if that relationship is a two-way street where you can encourage each other.

To view more of Sarah Morrison’s work

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