James Morton

My work evolves from an interest in people, and a basic need to capture an expression at a given moment. I use old photographs of people in everyday life, and the people i see around me. Aiming to depict a vulnerability, or melancholy, these paintings often take on an ethereal quality. Although each painting starts from an image, the relationship between the marks takes over from the original photo, which is then rarely referenced again during the painting process. I use gestural mark-making, manoeuvering the paint with different tools to manipulate the surface, creating definition and texture; pushing and pulling different features to the forefront of the painting to obtain balance.