Melanie Morris on Finding Your Own Way of Working
Melanie Morris, Ep. 34, wanted to be an artist. But her father, with good intentions, warned her off of it. He wanted her to be financially self-sufficient and worried that art wouldn’t give her that.
So she studied communication in college (with art classes on the side) and eventually Morris got to the point where she could choose a job that allowed her to work from home. Better yet, it was a job where she moderated conferences happening at night.
She took her days and got to work.
“I went back to school in painting,” says Morris. “I decided I didn't need another degree. I was going to just take the classes I wanted to take.”
While Morris approached her work intuitively, the classes she took were foundational. She took color theory and learned about values.
“I had a great professor,” says Morris. “She introduced me to so many artists, including a lot of contemporary artists that I was not familiar with.”
“I didn't need another degree. I was going to just take the classes I wanted to take.”
This professor also taught Morris a way of getting inspiration from her art heroes.
“She never wanted us to copy another artist's work, but she wanted us to be inspired by it,” says Morris.
Instead the professor suggested that they take an artist whose work they love and really think about the reasons for loving it. Maybe, for example, you take the colors the artist uses and try to bring those into your own work or you think about how she applied composition and try and use pieces of that approach in your paintings.
NO COPIES PLEASE
In the classes Morris teaches today, the no copying rule holds firm.
The reason is simple.
“I don't feel like that's helpful because they will walk away from that experience and are scared to start their own painting because they don't have me to follow.”
Morris knows that this may cause a bit more struggle but that in the long run, her students will have the skills they need to do their own paintings after they finish her class.
“That's why we paint from life with our own flowers. Because I want to walk them through and give them the foundation. This is how you pick colors. This is how you pick flowers. And before they know it, they are painting themselves.”
A SERIES OF STEPS
Morris paints flowers, but her process begins before she touches a single petal.
“I'll spend some time before I buy my flowers thinking about the color story that I want to use. I don't want to walk into Trader Joe's and be overwhelmed by all the flowers,” she says. “So I think about an advance, what colors I'm really looking for, and I'll buy my flowers.”
Next she heads back to the studio and completely sets up her still life. She lights it with a strong light source and then does a timed, 45 minutes, 6x6 painting.
“What I find is that by painting fairly fast, I'm going to capture the atmosphere, the feel of the flowers, and I'm not going to overwork it.”
She wants to capture the looseness, the colors and the composition of her subject. Once she has that, it’s time to go large.
“That's why we paint from life with our own flowers. Because I want to walk them through and give them the foundation. This is how you pick colors. This is how you pick flowers. And before they know it, they are painting themselves.”
-Melanie Morris
“If I have my small one to look at, and I still have my floral, it gives me really good guidance on how to move forward.”
Going larger means more chances to tighten up. So that mini is a critical step for Morris.
“It seems counterintuitive, but I think you have more space. And you really feel like you’ve got to fill all that up.”
Next she uses charcoal to grid out her larger painting. She mixes her colors and works front to back, dark to light, thin to thick.
If you think this sounds like how an oil painter would approach her work, you wouldn’t be wrong. In fact, that’s exactly where they came from for Morris.
ACRYLIC PAINT
Many of Morris’ approaches to acrylic paint can be found rooted in her original oil painting roots.
“I started as an old painter. When I went back to school, I loved oil paint. I loved everything about it the way it smelled and the way it went on the panel or the canvas.”
She began experiencing symptoms that were later diagnosed as asthma. When the class began an acrylic unit, the symptoms went away. Once the oil paints were brought back out, the symptoms came back.
A professor pointed her towards Golden acrylics, and she never looked back.
Today Morris loves her acrylics. But she understands that every medium has pros and cons.
“If you're an acrylic painter, you know, the bane and the best part of acrylic paint is that it dries fast,” she says.
To overcome the fast drying time, Morris employs two main techniques.
The first begins with her palette. She keeps her fresh paints on a Sta-Wet palette. She mixes from there to a disposable paper palette. If she mixes up a large amount of color and will be working on the painting across several days, she may move the pile to a second Sta-Wet palette for storage.
“I started as an old painter. When I went back to school, I loved oil paint. I loved everything about it the way it smelled and the way it went on the panel or the canvas.” -Melanie Morris
This approach means she doesn’t worry about her fresh paints from drying out.
The second method to combat fast drying time is that occasionally you’ll find Morris with two brushes in hand. This allows her to blend in the short window that acrylic allows.
For example, she’ll have one brush loaded with background color and the other with the flower color. She’ll work back and forth between the two to blend. Additionally, she may use a gloved finger to smudge the edge.
KEEPING AT IT
Morris has dozens and dozens of techniques she’s put in place to make her painting life both successful and enjoyable. This knowledge is a reflection of the time she has spent committed to understanding paint.
The only way to get to a point where you do understand your tools, material and process is to commit time to it consistently.
This is exactly what Morris encourages her students to do.
“Set aside 45 minutes,” she says. “Put it as an appointment in your date book.”
If you can’t paint every day, Morris encourages students to commit to a particular number of days each week and to keep track of your progress. To do this, Morris suggests you take small canvases and number them. So if for example you’re doin four paintings a week, you’d number a month’s worth of canvases 1 to 16.
“You can do four each week,” she says. “Do those 16 paintings and look at the comparison between where you were at one and where you were at 16.”
The effect can be profound.
“Once you see that development, you're going to try to schedule painting time.”
Listen to the full conversation with acrylic artist, Melanie Morris (Ep.34) here.
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