EDITORS NOTE: The Artist Corner will run every first, third, and fifth Friday. It will feature profiles of local artists and other arts-related stories.
Nature plays an important role in Lillie Morris’s artwork.
“I live in such a beautiful place,” said Morris, whose “Water Works: Recent Paintings by Lillie Morris” exhibition is at the Morris Museum of Art through Jan. 31.
She and her husband, Bill, live on a farm in Appling on their 50-acre slice of land that’s been in her husband’s family for many years. The landscape features a creek, a pond and pastureland and gives Morris plenty of inspiration for her abstract works.
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Morris started pursuing art as a child even though she didn’t have any formal art classes. In school, she exuberantly colored or helped teachers with bulletin boards. She made her own clothes, deviating from the patterns to put her own touches on her Easter dresses.
It wasn’t until she entered Westside High School that Morris had a taste of formal art education. She decided to major in art when she entered Augusta University in 1972, then Augusta College, but she followed a path to become a nurse after learning that the main art careers open to women at the time were as art teachers.
Morris spent 30 years as a nurse at University Hospital.
“I fully retired in 2005, but I never totally got away from my art,” she said.
Even while she was working as a nurse and raising two sons, Morris took classes at Augusta University before deciding to pursue a more self-taught route. She studied at the Gertrude Herbert Institute of Art and with well-known Augusta artists including Jim Lyle and Bea Kuhlke.
“I did some art-related things at the hospital,” she said. “There are some paintings there, and I did procedure manual drawings.”
Morris started in watercolors because they required limited space and were easy to move around. As she honed her technique, she experimented in other media including acrylics and collage.
After she retired, she immersed herself in her art. She’s exhibited internationally and has been part of several artist residencies in Ireland.
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Morris said her Water Works’ exhibition came about through her feelings after the Augusta Canal was drained in January 2019 and over the controversy concerning replacing the lock and dam with a riverwide rock weir fish passage.
The resulting paintings are designed not as a literal interpretation of the canal or other waterways in Augusta, but “the series was intended to evoke the feeling of being in or underwater…to somehow depict its power and the mystery of what might lie beneath the surface,” according to the exhibition information on the Morris Museum of Art website.
Not only is Morris’s work on display in downtown Augusta, but she’s part of a multiple artist event at the Arts and Heritage Center of North Augusta. The AHCNA Open Session Exhibit will be through Feb. 11.
Other art happenings in the area include the Thomas Needham and Pat Warren exhibition at Sacred Heart Cultural Center, which will be on display in the Art Hall through Feb. 26.
Needham’s works “showcase the American scene, both past and present as well as the vibrant action of today’s pastimes and culture,” according to a news release from Sacred Heart. Warren’s works are employ “abstract impressions, using acrylic and oil, focusing on how light falls on form, applying harmonious brushstrokes and engaging high hue while reserving respect for life,” the news release said.
Charmain Z. Brackett is the Features Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach her at charmain@theaugustapress.com
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