What can be said of a man who paints cowboys, horses and damsels in distress in the dreamy hues of technicolor?
Well, perhaps that he is an artist that allows himself the same luxuries of a boy dreaming of heroes in the seductive landscape of the great American West.
Bruce Morrow provides a glimpse of his dreams in a show entitled “Iconic Cowboys and a Triptych of the West” on Saturday, Nov. 3 at the grand opening of the new Karlson/Gray Gallery in Langley.
Black stallions maneuvered in three frames on a field of cornstalk yellow, or a girl in a blue dress outsmarting a brown bull in a swash of red. These are just two examples of the dreamy themes played out in a swirl of vibrant colors favored by the artist.
Morrow, who also creates work in wood block, etching, aquatint and “series mono prints,” said many of his paintings are inspired while exploring the images garnered by classic American road trips.
“Sometimes Buffy (his wife) and I will hop on a plane to Las Vegas and then drive for 2,000 miles,” he said.
The Southwest particularly attracts him; he lived for a time in New Mexico and became enamored of the landscape there. The paintings for the current show, though, were mainly inspired while driving through Idaho and Wyoming.
A previous painting he finished of a sleeping cowboy became a sort of muse and the horses and the damsels followed, coming upon him by chance. He let the theme develop on its own.
“I don’t know where it comes from all the time,” Morrow said. “But, because
I don’t pay the bills with my art it allows me a certain freedom to paint what
I want.”
The Clinton resident owns Two Morrow’s Builders, a construction company, and has lived on the island since 1986 where he and his wife, fellow artist Buffy Cribbs and daughter Briony Morrow-Cribbs, also an artist, followed the rest of the uncannily talented Cribbs clan of more than 11 artists of various media.
Morrow is a man of gentle manner and is somewhat modest about his talent. But the cowboys and color of his paintings reveal a surprise robustness of soul that may speak to his roots.
Being a product of an era when many boys grew up watching classic and iconic American cowboys on television, Morrow said something about westerns and tough guys on horses must have penetrated his consciousness. He also had a fascination with American history, and the symbols of the Native American experience figure frequently in his work.
In the 1960s, he studied at the California Institute of the Arts, which at the time was known as Chounard Art School. The school was in transition from being a “traditional” art school and moving toward something more modern and avant garde.
“I came out of it with a pretty traditional education,” Morrow said. “I did a lot of figure drawing and a lot of composition classes.”
The skill of drawing is evident in his work which is largely figurative and shows off his mastery of the figure, allowing him to play with it and put his own stamp on it.
Morrow said the current paintings are a bit looser than some of his previous work, with quicker brush strokes and by not going back over the work.
Looking at the body of paintings as a whole, one could say the artist has created his own personal myth that perhaps stems from the days of cowboy shows combined with spontaneous road trips. It continues to infiltrate his dreams and sensibilities as an artist.
“A while ago, we named it the ‘searching for desire’ series,” Morrow said of his current work, agreeing that one could call it a kind of created myth. And these paintings do indeed evoke a kind of mythological place and time where stories emerge from the canvas and go straight to the heart of the viewer.
The show is open until Nov. 28. An opening reception will be held from 5 to 8 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 3. Karlson/Gray Gallery is located at 302 First St. in Langley.
Visit www.karlsongraygallery.com or call 221-2978 for info.
