Meet The Artist: Bree Morrison
Bree Morrison is a local contemporary artist based in the beautiful suburb of Sunbury in Melbourne’s North West. We are so excited to have Bree within our cohort of artists at Forman! You may have already seen some of her beautiful landscapes in our gallery or on our website and we are now thrilled to share more with you about her incredible work and journey as an artist.
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Bree spent her childhood growing up in a remote town exploring river banks and observing the ebb and flow of the changing seasons. Her artwork mostly focuses on abstract landscapes influenced by ecosystems and the shifting changes in light and the life within the landscapes.
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“My process involves spending a lot of time observing and photographing the world around me. I then paint intuitively and quickly with little prior planning. I aim to capture the mood or feeling of the piece, using vivid and earthy colour pallets, visible brush stokes, mark making, textures and abstraction.” 
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She sees her artworks as snippets into an introspective world, a link to her nostalgic feelings and emotions reminiscent of childhood memories. 
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I want my work to bring forth the juxtaposition of the outer and inner world, communicating both whimsical beauty and meaningful connections to both nature and the ones we love.”
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Above: Collection of small artworks in Bree’s studio
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Like many artists who adapted to working from home last year, Bree works from her home studio in their garage that her hubby Joel converted to a space for her. She is excited to soon be moving onto her very own little studio space that they will construct from a gorgeous prefab pod design in their back yard.
Using mostly acrylic paints on canvas, Bree loves to add in some mixed medium elements such as charcoal, wax pastels, oil pastels, crayons, and occasionally paint pens and collage. One of her favourite tools to create with are bamboo skewers, using them to etch into layers of paint creating marks and textures.  
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Above: Details of Bree’s studio
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In a typical session of painting Bree will often have a hot brew by her side (she admits to having up to 3 coffees. No judgement Bree! This is actually pretty good for the average Melbournian!) and loves to listen to all kinds of music or a good podcast while creating.
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Bree has loved creating for as long as she can remember. 
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“I have always had a vivid imagination and spent a lot of time as a kid daydreaming about writing stories and imagining things I could draw, paint and create. All through school my favourite class was art.”  
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She competed a Bachelor of Fine Art with Honours, however she didn’t immediately pursue a career as an artist. Instead she went on to become a secondary art and design teacher for about 10 years without having much of a personal art practise at all. Bree explains;
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“I never actually believed even after completing a degree and then teaching others to paint and draw that I had enough talent to call myself an artist.” 
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This is something many artists can probably relate to. Elizabeth Gilbert refers to this as ‘having the courage to bring forth the treasures within you’ (if you haven’t read or listened to Big Magic, it is a must!). How wonderful that Bree would have helped so many young creatives to do this through her teaching, and how fantastic that she mastered the courage to do so for herself. Her paintings are an absolute joy to behold. Bree goes on to explain;
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“However after the birth of my first child I started dabbling with painting again, mostly to try and reconnect with my own interests and to help me work through some post natal depression and anxiety. From there the fire was lit, I began to create and share on Instagram, taking classes by artists who inspire me and pretty much painting as often as I could.”
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I must take a moment here to say how much we at Forman are inspired by you Bree and thank you for sharing this part of your journey. We’re sure many others reading this will be inspired also. 
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Above: Inside Bree’s studio
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Bree’s art is influenced by many things such as clothes, music, her children, travel, gardening and poetry to name a few. She is particularly inspired by landscapes, towering gum trees, mountain tops, deep valleys, rivers and water ways. 
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“I explore the idea of bringing forth a story that is sitting at the edge of my memory, often a connection to a place or experience that is special or meaningful to me. I use a combination of real and imagined landscape to evoke a sense of whimsical vibrancy but also evoke a sense of idyllic familiarity and belonging. This is something I hope the viewer connects with in their own way when viewing my work that resonates with them.”
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Her colour palettes change depending on the seasons, the weather that day, the clothes she’s wearing, her mood and even the type of music she’s listening to. She will often allow the lose and energetic underpainting to organically influence the direction, mood, composition, shapes, iconography and marks included in a piece. The early layers are lose and abstract, then gradually built up to a highly detailed or textured finish. 
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Bree’s artwork displays a remarkable talent to capture imagination and provoke emotion. Experiencing her work transports us to vibrant lands we once visited in our childhoods or in a dream. Thank you Bree for having the courage to bring forth all these wondrous treasures within you.
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You can view all of Bree’s artworks for sale HERE and visit our gallery to experience them in person.