Morgan Cameron Art
ARTIST STATEMENT:
My paintings usually highlight two different themes, one mainly focuses on animals and capturing a sense of movement and narrative through the captivating style of disrupted-realism. While the other explores the realms of darker, more haunting subject matters that reflect my own personality and other passions in the world of Haunts and Halloween! Animals are still significantly featured in this work as well and remain my favorite subjects to paint.
Living creatures are constantly moving and twitching in rhythm with the space around them and I strive to capture that movement in my work. This may be why I am drawn to looser forms and brushwork and have been since I first discovered the style in college. It's always been so captivating and expressive to me. The technique of painting less precise in some areas leaves room for improvisation during the creation process, makeing gestures of ideas that the viewer can decipher as they wish. Life moves and pulses in unpredictable ways and takes on a rhythm of its own. That's what I aim to achieve in my work, a sense of life. I wish to assist the subject with the appearance of movement and to meld the forms to create something that feels united throughout the painting as a whole. Much of the time I use undefined backgrounds to create an atmosphere that's main objective is to vibrate around the subject matter and work with it harmoniously, making the background and the subject one united being. The abstracted markings help in leading one's eye around the piece, only to fall back into place on the main forms and repeat the cycle with new details to discover each time. The times that I do choose to include more information in my backgrounds, this ultimate goal still remains. I use several different tools to achieve this combination of realistic and abstract forms and I’m constantly trying to develop all their uses and possibilities, many of which are discovered during creation process itself.


BIO:
I was born and raised in the small, rural town of Dover-Foxcroft, ME. My family has an old, multi-generational farm and growing up, it was owned by my grandparents. They had many animals, lots of land and I spent most of my time outside with my pony, exploring the woods and fields. To this day I still have a great love of the outdoors, animals and working with my hands.
I was naturally drawn to art and creative projects. I loved drawing ever since I can remember, and horses were my favorite subject for most of my life. I learned to observe the beautiful anatomy and movements of the animal and how to capture their essence on paper. Eventually I would discover painting and this sent me on the path I'm still on today. I now live in Gray, ME with my husband and our dog and paint a large variety of subjects, but equines always find their way back onto my easel.
I grew up watching old Western movies with my grandfather and pretending I was a cowgirl (if not a horse myself) for much of my childhood. I was also lucky enough to live in a town that had a local Equestrian-Theater/ Dressage Farm where I was surrounded by many other things that I loved: magic, music, acting, costumes, and creative people! It was very inspiring. I worked on various farms as a teenager and had considered farm life as a career, but ultimately my love of art and creating drove me to go to art school, first attending the University of Maine, Orono as a Painting Major, then transferring to The Lyme Academy of Fine Art. After my second year however, I left school and married my Pianist/Composer high-school sweetheart, Clifford Cameron, and we've spent our years traveling and growing artistically together and have settled back in our home state of Maine.
I first began showing my work professionally, back in 2012, at local art festivals in New Orleans, where we lived for a time. This connected me to my first art gallery, Tripolo Gallery. I have since had my art shown across the country in LA, ME, CA, NY and CO. My work is currently being represented by Abend Gallery in Denver, CO, Moss Galleries in Falmouth, ME and Equis Art Gallery in Redhook, NY.
My artwork tends to fall into two areas, my lighter and darker themes. Halloween is my favorite time of year and I enjoy spending much of my creative energy making each Halloween season as festive and memorable as possible! To do this, I work throughout the whole year at one of my favorite places on earth, Haunted Overload in Lee, NH, where I help build props and sets and "scare" there as an actor during October. In 2023, I even travelled to the midwest to the Transworld Halloween Convention to give a set/prop building seminar with some of the haunt crew.
To express this side of myself in my work, I created a secondary branch of my art under the name Dark Hollow Arts. These works focus more on the darker/ spookier side of my personality and is the side of my art career I show by vending at fairs, conventions and festivals and sell on Etsy. Whereas my other work is more gallery oriented. I love both styles equally.
You can follow my haunt career at: @darkhollowhaunt.
Another passion of mine is music. I song-write/sing/play mandolin in my family band with my husband and father, called The Northern Grey. Outside of the creative, I am a certified dog trainer and spent years walking and working with dogs. However, since moving to Maine in 2019, I've found myself dedicating most of my time to my art career and getting to know the local art community by working part-time at Moss Galleries. Though art keeps me very busy, I still find ways to surround myself with animals regularly and keep the passion to paint them alive, as well as nourish my soul.


Day & night work at Haunted Overload
My Dark Hollow Arts booth at Haunted Overload

My Dark Hollow Arts Studio


A glimpse into my studio
Publications/Features/ Awards/ Competitions
Featured Images & Articles Below
2022- Featured in an ad for Moss Galleries in Downeast Magazine. www.elizabethmossgalleries.com


2022- Awarded Top Dog in Artists Network "2nd Annual Best in Show Pets Art Competition" featuring piece, "Forever a Pack":
https://www.artistsnetwork.com/art-competitions-inspiration/6-winning-dog-portraits/


2022- The Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Common Ground Country Fair in Unity Maine, poster contest winner with colored pencil piece "Raven and Blackberries": https://store.mofga.org/products/2022-common-ground-country-fair-poster?fbclid=IwAR1acqVGEZIzdMwo49JoXRjXTVBu8bnRapIKcX2QIaRk9Zdp4-WPHzux9zQ
Both artist and poster were featured in the Bangor Daily News, the Piscataquis Observer, and WABI TV 5 News. The article and video news clip can be viewed in the links below:

2021- Southwest Art Magazine, "21 Under 31." Featured as one of the 21 up-in-coming artists under the age of 31 to "watch for" in the art world! https://www.southwestart.com/featured/21-under-31-aug2021





2021- Album cover for The Mallett Brothers Band album, "Gold Light"- July 4th 2021. Bison painting, "Of What Remains," was the pieces selected for the cover. The album art was also featured on the Three Rivers Bissell Brothers Brewing Company brew can "Gold Light" for the release of the album.


2021- Featured Artist in Lavender Fields Online Magazine, February 2021 issue.

2020- Featured in Southwest Art Magazine with the Artistic Excellence Annual Competition, as an Honorable Mention Finalist. Piece to be featured: "Backcountry Cowhand."



2020- Featured in Sidelines Magazine, a prominent Equine Magazine. Article titled: "Finding Home in Life and Art, " written by Shya Beth, founder of Art of the Horse.

2019- Album cover for Clifford Cameron's music album "Katahdin" featuring The Alpine Ensemble.

2020- Featured as "Emerging Artist" in the online article with Western Art Collector Magazine. The painting "The Sorrel," is depicted with Artist feature in correlation with Abend Gallery. https://www.westernartcollector.com/issues/152/emerging-artists

2019- "Theater Horse #4" was specially requested by the Equus Film Festival for their Maryland poster as apart of their Nationwide tour in 2019.

2014- "Ahead of the Pack," oil painting selected from competition as the poster for the Harvest Cup Polo Classic by The Junior League of Greater Covington, LA. The painting and artist was featured in an edition of Inside Northside Magazine and in several local papers.

