Morgan Samuel Price

Morgan Samuel Price Effect
At age 15, Morgan knew enough about painting to learn Sumi brush strokes. Even at 15, Morgan had the mindfulness to view her own practice and go learn specific skills to improve. No technical issue was going to hold Morgan back. Now, decades later, Morgan Samuel Price has technical skills few painters ever possess. Morgan will tell you that you make 22 decisions with each brushstroke and she can name them. You only develop technical skills like this with a very fine mind and the tenacity to use it.

Her professional career began in 1968 after graduating from Ringling School of Art. She began working at Hallmark Cards as an illustrator. She worked as art director of the News Herald in Like County Ohio. When she moved to Ardmore, Oklahoma with her young family she decided to become a fine artist. She lived in a town with no galleries, no museum, no art stores, and no art centers. When Morgan left Ardmore she was running art groups for doctors, lawyers, and developing painting skills of men, women and children. Morgan left Ardmore with 4 flourishing art stores because practically everyone around had started painting. She turned a small town in Oklahoma into a town with a thriving visual arts culture before she turned 30.

In the process, Morgan discovered she loved teaching as much as she loved painting. Many artists teach but not all see teaching itself as an art. Morgan did. Morgan learned to explain a single concept many ways. She tuned into how different people hear information. She put learning issues into treasure boxes. Because Morgan respected the art of teaching, Morgan became one of our most respected teachers of art.

Most of Morgan’s students can name the 23 most common design problems. Few probably realize she still examines every inch of her paintings to assure that she has not made those same mistakes herself. Morgan likely has the largest return rate of any painting teacher today. She remembers you and your work, even decades later. Within one painting Morgan knows exactly what you need to do next to be even better. She does not teach generally. Every word she speaks to a group or to a student is tailored, specific, and inclusive of your needs and everyone else in the workshop.

Morgan has authored two books: Turn on the Light, a touchstone to Plein Air Painting and Oil with a Basic Palette. She has produced over 14 DVD’s and numerous on-line Video Educational Products. Morgan has exhibited in 60 + National Exhibitions, Plein Air Invitational Events throughout the country and numerous solo gallery exhibitions. Her awards are listed here.

Morgan always sees the positive. Her vision is always up. She takes you along with her until your own enjoyment of the visual beauty that surrounds all of us has turned into passion. You start seeing in values and plotting how you can paint more often.

Her 40-year plus career is an overwhelming desire to elevate each moment with uplifting thought through visual enjoyment. Sharing her gifts through painting and teaching has brought endless rewards. Morgan is always the most grateful person in the room.

You always know when Morgan enters a room. It isn’t the excitement of being with a rock star painter, it’s the excitement Morgan brings being fully present in any situation. She is absolutely in the moment all the time.

Morgan has exclaimed on more than one occasion: "It is not what you see, but how you see it. You don't need to go to the Grand Canyon to see beautiful. It is right outside your door".

Her motivation to paint is stimulated by light as it flows across the shapes of the scene. Morgan sees light as a tool to explore the visual pleasure of the movement over the objects. Capturing that movement sets the time of day. Retaining that choice of actual time creates the plausible illusion. The painting is never about the subject. It is about the physical sensation of temperature felt, the sense of presence enjoyed.

Morgan is a member of many art societies including Salmagundi Club NYC, Allied Artists NYC, and American Society of Marine Artists & Oil Painters of America.

Morgan is a painter, a teacher, and a master artist that is always involved in keeping painting alive and flourishing wherever she is. Morgan understands completely that fine art flourishes only in places that offer artists opportunities to learn and earn at every level. Her presence at a Paint Out elevates everyone. I have often heard other artists thank her for being present and bringing in collectors. But to Morgan, that is just part of being an artist, a teacher, a friend and a lover of art. Getting to know Morgan has been one of my greatest gifts.
She is often called “Florida’s Painter”. Few painters can catch Florida’s wildness and her quiet hospitality. She paints our world as it is now, and we will be always grateful for that in the future.

It is no wonder that so many students, artists, collectors, and art lovers are grateful for Morgan Samuel Price’s gifts to teaching us how to see.

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