Dug Morton | Gallery Sitka®

Dug Morton — Artist’s Biography & Statement
Studio: Lunenburg, MA
Born: Groton, MA

Dug Morton’s early paintings were Impressionist, focused mainly on still life and landscape, frequently done en plein air. From there he started pursuing Expressionism, mostly figurative. In 1994, the artist started off in a new direction in which he pared down the visual elements so that color and texture became the subject matter.

The simplicity of these Minimalist abstractions occupied his work over the next few years. Developing a style, he calls “Organic Geometry,” Mr. Morton later allowed the abstraction in his work to be more lyrical and painterly, while still retaining a geometric underpinning. These pictures were created through a balance of the analytical versus the visceral, through boldness versus subtlety. Recently Dug has delved back into representational work. He has been excited to see how the long run of geometric abstraction has influenced his depiction of figures, objects and ground.

Dug Morton is a native of Groton, MA.

Artist’s Statement
My life as a painter began in the 1980s with a love for impressionism. My pictures of landscapes, figures and still lives reflected this. By the early nineties my work had moved into abstraction. For the next 25 years I have worked mostly in abstraction, primarily geometric in nature.

In the course of working abstractly my main concern was communicating ideas through formalist means – color, line, shape and texture. My preferred subject matter became dichotomy and duality, such as the beauty found in the Disaster Series of paintings from 2007-2011.

Occasionally there have been forays into representation, most often in an expressionist tone.

By the late 2000s the fluidity of my representational paintings began to materialize in the abstractions, starting a course of cross-pollination, with formal elements becoming more prominent in the representational pieces.

Now I seek to paint about dichotomy and duality representationally, but not within a single picture, as in the abstractions. Rather, I want to express this through a grouping of pictures that address, as a whole, a wide range of sometimes opposing ideas and emotions. These include discord and harmony, innocence and guilt, happiness and sadness, confusion and understanding, the known and unknown, quietude and energy, tragedy and triumph.

MY PROCESS

The titles of my work usually reference feelings or ideas because that is what they are about. Those things are what drive my creative force. As a painter in particular, I am in love with colors, shapes, texture, line and composition. I find my images everywhere. For example, I might see a scene as mundane as a dumpster alongside a stack of crates in front of a concrete wall at the back of a restaurant, and the colors and shapes and textures just happen to strike me, I will snap a photograph and use that to start a piece. Once the painting is in progress, I generally have no interest in “depicting” the items in the image. Rather, it is those formal elements that attracted me that I latch on to, letting them evolve and morph into something that feels like a world unto itself. The piece becomes an expression of my inner life.

An alternate form of my process occurs when I have a commission. They are sometimes abstract and sometimes representational, depending on what the client wants. I collaborate with the client to decide the nature of the image. In that process we each bring ideas, bandy them about, eventually settling on a concept that incorporates and represents a melding of the varied views. The result is usually a revelation of a new and unique image.

Dug's CV

EXHIBITIONS AND ART-RELATED EXPERIENCE
September 2021 Solo Show: Gallery Sitka East, Shirley, MA; New Paintings
September 2019 Solo Show: Gallery Sitka East, Shirley, MA; New Paintings
September 2017 Solo Show: Gallery Sitka West, Fitchburg, MA; New Paintings
June-September 2016 Juried Group Show: Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg, MA; 81^st Regional Exhibition of Art & Craft
September 2015 Solo Show: Gallery Sitka, Shirley, MA; New Paintings
February 2015 Group Show: Curated by Sitka Creations at DORMA in New York, NY. Opening Sponsored by MNG.
October-November 2013 Group Show: East Wing Gallery, Gardner, MA; 50th Anniversary Alumni Art Exhibit
June-September 2012 Juried Group Show: Fitchburg Art Museum, Fitchburg, MA; 77^th Regional Exhibition of Art & Craft
June-July 2011 Solo Show: East Wing Gallery, Gardner, MA; New Paintings
May 2011 Solo Show: Sudbury Steel House, Sudbury, MA; New Paintings
April-June 2010 Commissioned to design and execute the painting of a mural in Lowell, MA home
May 2010 Visiting lecturer; The Winchendon School, Winchendon, MA
November-December 2009 Solo Show: Gallery at Indian Hill, Littleton, MA; “The Disaster Series: Part Two”
June 2009 Solo Show: Invitation only showing at collector’s home, Groton, MA; Recent paintings and mural work
November 2008-April 2009 Commissioned by art collector in Groton, MA to design and execute the painting of a mural
December 2007-April 2008 Two-Person Show: Reed Gallery, Brookline, MA; “CONNECTED, Partners Sharing a Life and an Aesthetic Vision”; Paintings by Dug Morton; Photographs by Dawn Haley Morton
June 2007 Commissioned by National Boston Studios in Brookline, MA to design and oversee the painting of a 60’ x 15’ mural
January-March 2007 Two-Person Show: East Wing Gallery, Gardner, MA; “CONNECTED, Partners Sharing a Life and an Aesthetic Vision”; Paintings by Dug Morton; Photographs by Dawn Haley Morton
January 2005-June 2006 Commissioned by art collector in Holden, MA to design, execute and install painting triptych
November 2004 Group Show: East Wing Gallery, Gardner, MA
September 2004 Group Show: Thoreau Gallery, Rindge, NH
August 2004 Group Show: Callimuse Gallery, Round Pond, ME
September 2002–Present Permanent Exhibit: Paintings in the collection of The Inn at Round Pond, Round Pond, ME
December 2001-March 2002 Gallery Installation Director for MASCO Services Inc., Boston, MA
July 2000-July 2008 Graphic Designer for Sand Stew, Inc., Worcester, MA
June 1997 Four-Person Show: Lowell Street Gallery, Cambridge, MA; “Altered Images”; Recent Work by Dug Morton, Adrienne Der Marderosian, Celia Gilbert and Betty Ann Libby
February 1997 Group Show: University Place Gallery, Cambridge, MA; “Fin de Siecle”; Barbara Krakow, juror
October 1996 Solo Show: Thoreau Gallery, Rindge, NH; “The Paintings of Dug Morton”
October 1996 Lectured at Franklin Pierce College, Rindge, NH, on my career as an artist
June 1996 Group Show: Lowell Street Gallery, Cambridge, MA; “Clay & Black and White”
February 1996 Group Show: Lowell Street Gallery, Cambridge, MA; “Gender in Art: What Women See, What Men See”; Ron Platt, Assistant Curator, List Visual Arts Center at M.I.T., juror
September 1995 Group Show: University Place Gallery, Cambridge, MA; Fall Salon for the Cambridge Art Association; Received Honorable Mention Award00000
March 1995-September 1997 Member of the Cambridge Art Association, Cambridge, MA; Chairperson for shows in 1996 and 1997
February 1995 Group Show: University Place Gallery, Cambridge, MA; “Symmetry and Asymmetry”
September 1994 Group Show: Thoreau Gallery, Rindge, NH
October 1992 Solo Show: Five Crows Gallery, Boston, MA; “Arcs and Blocks”
September 1991-January 1992 Taught Beginning Painting for Adults at the Groton Center for the Arts, Groton, MA
September 1990-June 1991 Taught art to emotionally disturbed children at St. Ann’s Home, Methuen, MA
April 1989 Group Show: Thoreau Gallery, Rindge, NH
March 1989 Group Show: Thoreau Gallery, Rindge, NH
February 1989 Two-Person Show: East Wing Gallery, Gardner, MA; Recent Paintings by Dug Morton and Suzanne Najarian
February 1987 Two-Person Show: East Wing Gallery, Gardner, MA; Recent Paintings and Drawings by Dug Morton and Bil Thibodeau
January 1987 Painting demonstration: The Mall at Chestnut Hill, Newton, MA

COLLECTIONS
Works included in the collections of Franklin Pierce College, Mount Wachusett
Community College, The Inn at Round Pond, and various Private Collections

EDUCATION
January 1989-May 1990 Bachelor of Fine Arts and Teacher Certification, Franklin Pierce College, Rindge, NH
September 1986-May 1988 School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
September 1984-May 1986 Associate of Arts, Mount Wachusett Community College, Gardner, MA