I attended Hornsey College of Art in the late 1960s where tutors Len Lavington and Eric Swain gave me advice on drawing and painting. I vividly remember, for instance, in a life drawing class when I was shading a drawing too heavily, Eric Swain asking why was I ‘putting all this dirt on’. And Len Lavington advising me to paint in ‘creamy dabs’ – both are aspects of my foundation year tuition that I use to this day.
I went on to spend an interesting and fulfilling working life as an art director in advertising agencies. Painting only became a serious possibility when, towards the end of 1999 an agency I ran with friends and business partners became insolvent.
I now work as a painter full time. In the studio I primarily use oil or acrylic, though my plein-air work usually takes the form of pen and ink, later ‘coloured in’ with watercolour. Drawing is at the heart of my output, and the works of Feliks Topolski and Frank Brangwyn are especially influential.
I exhibit only occasionally – the annual Wapping Group exhibition is my main focus – though the selectors at FBA societies are sometimes kind enough to accept my work for their annual shows: The Royal Society of Portrait Painters (RP), Royal Institute of Oil Painters (ROI), Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours (RI), Royal Society of Marine Artists (RSMA), and most recently, the Society of Graphic Fine Art. I have also been short-listed for the Garrick Milne Prize (portraiture).
An increasing interest in working plein-air has made The Wapping Group feel like a natural artistic home, and I was honoured to be elected to full membership in 2019.
For more information please visit Keith’s Website https://kmart361.wixsite.com/keith-morton
