Bev Morton West Yorkshire, United Kingdom
A mixed media artist; I create with acrylic paint, collage and printing techniques to produce paintings and monotypes. I play with different methods with the aim of making the accidental intentional. This constant evolution towards authenticity in process, content and scale is seeking to convey my emotional responses to the landscape and nature as a collaboration between the two.
In August 2024, I closed my change coaching business which I had run for 16 years, to give developing my art my full focus. My exhibition 'Unfurling' opened in September at The Crafthouse in Bingley with fantastic response. I continued to develop my workshop practice in communities using creativity as a tool for play, wellbeing and confidence building. The different aspects of my creative practice mirror who I am as a person, with a life which values creativity, people, community and nature.
I left Bradford Art College 40 years ago and only returned to my art in 2018, spending the intervening years facilitating other people’s creativity. As a ‘reactivated’ artist, its been a time of re-emergence, exploration, play and development.
A mixed media artist who lives in Thornton, Bradford, I am a studio holder based at South Square where I am also a member of Unit 9 artists collective. Exhibiting there in Sept 2023, entitled 'In Transition', the exhibition mapped my changing creative practice and sought to set a direction of travel incorporating mixed-media, painting and mono-printing. This phase of the evolution of the work was also shown at Saltaire Arts Trail 2024.
The connection to this landscape is an important part of the making - Thornton village was the birth place of the Brontes and carries with it that drama. I seek to capture the feel and the voice of this landscape, as a photographer would. My medium being the layer upon layer of paint, shape and form, mark-making, colour, collage and texture.
The collaboration with The Craft Gallery in Bingley and South Square Centre root the development of my creative practice and provide places to share expertise throughout workshops as well as exhibit the progression. I have previously exhibited at The Apothecary Gallery in Thornton and Studio Vault in Settle where I’ve sold original works as well as limited edition giclee prints and cards.
In 2024, I was also involved in founding the hugely successful Thornton Art Trail with 41 artists showing in 11 locations from galleries, a community garden, the Bronte Birthplace, peoples houses and yards.
