Sarah McRae Morton

About

Sarah McRae Morton grew up in rural Lancaster County Pennsylvania, where she still keeps a hayloft studio above the horse stalls in her family’s barn. Sarah attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and has trained under artists Myron Barnstone in Coplay, Pennsylvania and Odd Nerdrum in Norway. She received fellowships to pursue art historical research in Europe and received a Matisse Foundation fellowship for her work on the local history of West Virginia. She also studied with the International Centre for the Study of the Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property in partnership with the Vatican Museum Laboratory in Rome, Italy. McRae Morton has been an Artist in Residence at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, ME; the Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT; Monson Arts Residency, Monson, ME; and Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Amherst, VA. Her work is shown across the United States and in Germany.

Morton’s paintings are invented portraits of her ancestors and historical figures – people from her own life, from books and paintings, and from her travels and stories learned. The events and people illustrated are not bound by time or fact but are imbued with ghosts and artifacts from cross sections of history. Sarah’s work is wildly romantic, with an earthy palate and energetic movement around the canvas that quiets on key moments – detailed renderings of the face of a bear, the lips of a lover, the fox stole around a poet’s neck. The paintings seem to flicker to life with her spirited brush strokes.

“The past is not dead, it is not even past” – William Faulkner

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2022          Somerville Manning, Greenville, DE

2021          Ribbon Cutting, Dowling Walsh Gallery, Rockland, ME

2020          The Barnacle and Belfry, Foster/White Gallery, Seattle, WA

2020          Somerville Manning, Greenville, DE

2020          The Arctic Council, Anja Knoess Galerie, Cologne, Germany

2019          Gingersnap and Soot, Dowling Walsh Gallery, Rockland, ME

2019          Draft Horse, Red Raven Art Company, Lancaster, PA

2018          The Wandering Fireside, Foster/White Gallery, Seattle, WA

2018          The Saw and the Wing, Somerville Manning Gallery, Greenville, DE

2017          The Mountain Whale, Red Raven Art Company, Lancaster, PA

2017          Dowling Walsh Gallery, Rockland, ME

2017          Dreams and Lies of Hallowed Ground and Wooden Skies, Anja Knoess Galerie, Cologne, Germany

2016          Mapping Stars at Noon, Foster/White Gallery, Seattle, WA

2016          The Dandelion Grower, Red Raven Art Company, Lancaster, PA

2016          Living on the Oven Door, Doris Ulmann Gallery at Berea College, Berea, KY

2015          Dowling Walsh Gallery, Rockland, ME

2015          Painting on Horseback, Red Raven Art Company, Lancaster, PA

2014          The Impossible Sight of a Ship, Dowling Walsh Gallery, Rockland, ME

2012 – 15   Annual Solo Show, Red Raven Art Company, Lancaster, PA

2007 – 10   Annual Solo Show, Red Raven Art Company, Lancaster, PA

2011          Galerie Schindel, Freiburg, Germany

2009          Forging Ahead, The Mitchell School of Fine Art, Baltimore, MD

2008          Best of All Colors, Phillips Museum, Franklin and Marshall College, Lancaster, PA

2005 – 06   The Pennsylvania Academy of Music, Lancaster, PA

Selected Group Exhibitions

2021          PAST | PRESENT | FUTURE, Somerville Manning Gallery, Greenville, DE

2017          Under the Influence | Contemporary Artists and the Masters Who Inspire Them,Somerville Manning Gallery, Greenville, DE

2016          Galerie Anja Knoess, Cologne, Germany        

2014          Haley Fine Art, Sperryville, VA         

2011          Promises of Greatness, Philadelphia Sketch Club Invitational, Philadelphia, PA

2011          Galerie Schindel, Freiburg, Germany

2011          Pennsylvania Seen, Lancaster Museum of Art Invitational, Lancaster, PA

2009          Demuth Museum Invitational, Demuth Museum, Lancaster, PA

2008          Yesterday and Today, Sande Webster Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

2006 – 07   Annual Juried Student Exhibition, The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA

Selected Awards and Residencies

2019          Monson Arts Residency, Monson, ME

2018          Virginia Center for the Creative Arts Residency Fellow

2018          Art Karlsruhe Prize, Anja Knoess Galerie, Karlsruhe, Germany

2013          Full merit fellowship, residency at the Vermont Studio Center

2008          Residency, The Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture

2007          Philadelphia Mayors Award

2006          Travel Scholarship, the Women’s Board of The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

2002 – 03   Barnstone Studios, Coplay, PA, made possible by a Matisse Foundation Fellowship

Education

2008          Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, ME

2007          Certificate Program, Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA

2004 – 07   Undergraduate Courses, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA

2006          Chemistry course in cooperation with ICCROM and the Vatican Museum Laboratory, Trinity College, Rome, Italy

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