Artist Biography & Facts

James (Jim) L Morgan

A resident of Mendon, Utah at the base of the Westville Mountain range, Jim Morgan says the area offers him enough landscape and wildlife ideas to last a lifetime.

He was born in Goshen, Utah, an old mining town. He spent a childhood roaming the outdoors. With no art school available, he and several others pooled their money and hired a teacher for themselves. In the summers, he worked in Alaska in conservation. He earned his art degree in 1970 when abstract art was prevalent and felt cheated from not learning the basics of art drawing. He is basically self-taught and is active in conservation organizations.

His work has been exhibited in the Prix de West Invitational at the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, the Northwest Rendezvous Group, and the Artists of America Show in Denver. Morgan has received many prestigious awards, including the 1994 Robert M. Lougheed Memorial Award at the National Academy of Western Art in Oklahoma City, and the Red Smith Artists Choice Award in 1996 at the National Museum of Wildlife Art in Jackson, Wyoming.

Source:
"Southwest Art" and "Wildlife Art"
Buffalo Bill Art Show & Sale, 2003

James Morgan, b. 1947, Goshen, Utah, (United States)

James Morgan has been interested in the outdoors, wild animals, and birds since he was growing up in a small town in central Utah. He spent as much time as possible hunting and fishing, and those early adventures in the marshes and mountains instilled in him an appreciation and interest in wildlife and nature. Many of Morgan's artistic inspirations come from the rural area where he resides in Cache Valley. Surrounded by mountains, marshes, and wildlife, he is never very far from inspiration.

Morgan is an artist who stresses the importance of the natural landscape in his compositions. While he emphasizes the backgrounds, he seeks to achieve a balance between the subject and its environment. This harmony is further aided by the play of light and shadow and subtle color changes. Morgan is intrigued by his observations of nature and concentrates on the effects of light on these elements; the resulting array of colors adds nature's ever-changing moods.

In a 1999 profile in "Sporting Classics", writer Tom Wharton said, "Morgan searches for different ways to express the beauty he sees in nature. Some would rank Morgan among the world's best contemporary wildlife artists. His style, however, is not realistic or detailed, which has proven so popular among collectors. Instead, he plays with light, brush strokes, and texture much like an impressionist. His art captures the feeling of a moment in the wild, where the movement of a well-camouflaged bird or animal might be all a hunter sees out of the corner of his eye.

Education
• BFA, Utah State University, Logan, Utah
Selected Exhibitions
• Autry National Center, Masters of the American West Exhibition, Los Angeles, CA, 2014
• National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum, Prix de West, Oklahoma, OK
• National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson, WY, 2014
• Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum, Birds in Art, Wausau, WI
• Gilcrease Museum, The Landscape and Closer Views, Tulsa, OK
• Society of Animal Artists, New York, NY
• C.M. Russell Museum, Great Falls, MT
• Living Legends and Young Brushes Show in Ontario, Canada, 1997-2000
Selected Press
• Western Art Collector, March, 2008
• American Art Collector, Challenging the Landscape, August, 2008
• American Artist, October, 2007
• Southwest Art, May, 2003
• Art of the West, January/February 1992
• Art of the West, July/August 1998
• Sporting Classics, July/August 1999
• Wildlife Art Magazine, November/December 1994
• Southwest Art Magazine, August 1992
Selected Publications
• Painters of Utah's Canyons and Deserts, Donna Poulton & Vern Swanson, Gibbs Smith, 2012
• "Leading The West" by Donald J. Hagerty, in cooperation with Southwest Art and Northland Publishing, 1997
• "Modern Wildlife Painting", by Nicolas Hammond, published by Pica Press in the United Kingdom
Affiliations
• Society of Animal Artists
• National Academy of Western Art
Awards
• Autry National Center, Masters of the American West, James Parks Trustee's Purchase, Los Angeles, CA, 2014
• National Museum of Wildlife Art, Colonel Red Smith Artists' Choice Award, Jackson Hole, WY, 1996, 2007, 2012
• National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, Prix de West, Pittman Wildlife Award, Oklahoma City, OK, 2006
• National Academy of Western Art, Robert Lougheed Memorial, Los Angeles, CA, 1994
• Northwest Rendezvous, Ben Stahl Artists' Choice, Park City, UT, 1993, 1995 2008
• Leigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum's Birds in Art, Master Wildlife Artist, Wausau, WI, 2008
• Society of Animal Artists, Award of Merit, New York, NY, 1983
Selected Collections
• Buffalo Bill Historical Center, Cody, WY
• Montana Historical Museum, Helena, MT
• National Museum of Wildlife Art, Jackson Hole, WY

James Morgan's art has been featured in many prestigious exhibitions, including the Masters of the American West Fine Art Exhibition and Sale at the Autry National Center of the American West, Los Angeles; the National Academy of Western Art and the Prix de West Invitational Art Exhibition and Sale at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City; the Society of Animal Artists' annual exhibitions in New York; and The Landscape and Closer Views, anexhibition at the C. M. Russell Museum in Great Falls, Montana.

He received the Robert M. Lougheed Memorial Award from the National Academy of Western Art in 1994 and the Colonel Richard H. "Red" Smith Artists' Choice Award from the National Wildlife Art Museum, Jackson, Wyoming, in 1996 and 2007. In 2008 he was named Master Wildlife Artist at theLeigh Yawkey Woodson Art Museum's Birds in Art show, and he won the Ben Stahl Artists' Choice Award at the Western Rendezvous of Art in Helena, Montana.

Morgan's work has been published in Donald J. Hagerty's book, Leading the West: One Hundred Contemporary Painters and Sculptors.

Source: Masters of the West Show, Autry National Center, 4700 Western Heritage Way, Los Angeles, CA 90027