Barbara Morse

Barbara Morse (b. 1947, Bridgeport, CT, d. 2023, Amherst, NH) was a graphite artist from Bridgeport, Connecticut. Her interest and involvement in art was life-long, starting at a young age. “I recall my first notable piece of art was done from a ‘Draw Me’ matchbook cover around the age of five and shown to a neighbor. Right from the start with her praise and encouragement, I was hooked.” Morse attended the Paier College of Art in New Haven, Connecticut, for two years after high school. She believed that in that time, she had learned all that she needed to know. She then took a job as an oral surgeon assistant, which was interesting work but a bit off-track from what she had trained for. After a few years as a graphic designer, Morse was looking for a better way to pursue and grow her career as an artist.

Morse worked as a freelance illustrator for over a dozen years, doing work for advertising agencies, magazine publications, and editorial assignments. She turned back to fine arts, which had always been her first love. Morse believed that when you find the medium you truly love following the years of searching, with it comes the ability for expression. Her personal strength as an artist was working in graphite, and she worked a long time to develop her specific style of realism and level of quality. She uses Bristol Board with a smooth finish and varied leads from HB to 4B. Acrylic paints are used in a wash when color is used to highlight a portion of the drawing. Her pieces take anywhere from fifty to two hundred hours depending on the size and detail involved. Morse is in control of this medium, and took great pleasure in watching a piece come to life before her. She was greatly influenced in the style of sharp focus by artists Ken Davies and Paul Lipp who were two of her professors at Paier.

Developing an idea came from anything around Morse as everywhere she looked was a potential drawing. She enjoyed taking the ordinary and putting them in unexpected surroundings or giving an unusual perspective of the subject. Morse’s desire is to get the viewer’s thought process to extend beyond the natural order of things and to suggest a range of emotions from humor to hope. Her work is meant to be studied at close range, with the viewer moved to explore the connection between the image and the word. She challenged herself with each piece, isolating just a portion of a scene, object, or person in sharp focus, developing a mood within it and transforming it to a level of fine art. Beyond her family, making art was Morse’s greatest joy.

Barbara’s work was featured in ‘Group Effort,’ on view August 10-September 1, 2024.

“By isolating a portion of a scene, an object, or a person, developing a mood, and avoiding elements of realism, I create my image in Sharp Focus. Light and texture is to be as much the subject as the objects themselves, while a fragmented view should provoke thoughts of the whole. The ordinary should become the unexpected when viewed from an unusual setting or perspective. No matter the level of labor intensity, I find joy and satisfaction watching a piece come to life before me. My reward, though, is not having the viewer see the work through my eyes, but their own, creating a personal and long-lasting image to be timelessly viewed and shared.”