Featured Artist of the month
Each month we feature one artist from our Community Artists page here on our website, in our monthly newsletter, on Instagram, and on Facebook. We will also host an artist’s talk with them over Zoom so our audience can get to know them better. Check back at the beginning of each month for a new artist to learn about. And view artists from past months here.
March 2026: Brian Morrissey
We are happy to present Brian Morrissey as our Featured Artist of March 2026. Read on to learn about Brian and to see a selection of his artwork. Mark your calendars for an Artist’s Talk with Brian on Zoom on Thursday, March 26th at 1:00 PM Eastern Time. Click here to register ahead of time on Zoom.
About the Artist
I grew up in Wisconsin in the 60's and 70's. My dad was a commercial artist who also did realistic paintings for his own pleasure and I was lucky to grow up in a household where this was both normal and celebrated. I was encouraged as a child in my efforts to draw and create, and saw it around me, so in some respects it came naturally. Although, as with any pursuit, any "natural affinity" to something is far less important than simply being open to the possibilities of learning and then putting countless hours into the pursuit of the craft. And if that craft can, from time to time, be elevated to the level of art, or poetry, or uniqueness, then that is where beauty and understanding of the world resides.
My early work of copying photographs—I was mainly interested in portraits and the human condition—was accompanied by sketches from imagination and explorations of various mediums. After high school I had no real vision about a life in the arts, but I knew drawing was simply something that I enjoyed and in which I found both beauty and meditation. Learning about art and artists was inspiring.
By the time I was 22 I had spent two years in college at the University of WI at Oshkosh and a year and a half at the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, mixed in with two winters ski bumming in Steamboat Springs, CO. During the second winter in Colorado I got a book from the local library and researched art schools in Europe. The paragraph about the Leo Marchutz School of Painting & Drawing (LMSP&D) in the South of France was minimal, but I decided to pursue that possibility and wrote them a letter. As I recall their criteria for acceptance required little more than passion and desire. The cost was reasonable, and five months later I was on my first trip out of the country. I had taken high school french and figured that too would be a learning opportunity.
At the Leo Marchutz School of Painting & Drawing
Arriving in Aix was exciting, intimidating, an adventure, and eventually profound and impactful. Unlike some students I had a few years of drawing experience and even some success in selling work. I soon found I had much to unlearn. Sam, Billy, John, and Alan were kind and welcoming as well as being very knowledgeable and fully engaged in sharing what they had learned from their teachers and mentors.
I had rarely, if ever, drawn from nature, except for figure drawing classes, and it was exactly what I needed. I reluctantly abandoned any craft I had developed and submitted to a new approach where technique was only a result of learning to see. I had to forget what I knew to be receptive to what I could learn. By the end of eight or nine months I had done very few good paintings, but I had begun to learn to see.
Drawing, art history, discussions in the classroom, and plein air painting in the rural and urban landscapes were of course only part of the experience. Discussion of books, music, architecture, and culture enriched the experience. Visits to Paris, Venice, Florence, visits to museums, and the examples set by the people who ran and supported the school were integral to the pursuit of learning to see.
I returned to the College of Art and Design in Minneapolis for a year to graduate. A year later, 1981, I returned to Aix and the Leo Marchutz School of Painting & Drawing for a summer of study, and adventure, reuniting with teachers and friends.
Artist Philosophy
Art—to express or to communicate? To comment or to educate? To appreciate and mirror, or interpret, nature and form, to commune with the spiritual, to reflect on the human condition? All of the above for me. My work, for better or worse, has been eclectic in medium, style, subject matter and purpose. I was fortunate to find a career where I could wander among all of these pursuits.
What I learned at the LMSP&D has stayed with me ever since. Sometimes it is less evident in a design drawing, or an illustration for science or educational purposes, but I like to think that the principles of learning to see, and what makes a successful drawing or painting, is never far from mind.
Career
From the beginning my work explored different mediums, styles, and themes. Personal work, commercial work, graphics, commissioned portraits, illustration, imagined landscapes all had a place. Since my year with the the LMSP&D they've all been influenced by what I learned there. After a few years of freelance artwork, another winter of skiing in Colorado, and a few years of writing songs and playing in bands, I moved to New York the week I turned thirty.
Not sure what to do with my art skills in this most competitive art market, after two years of struggle and unfulfilling jobs I answered an ad in the NY Times and upon showing an extensive portfolio landed a job in the exhibition department of the American Museum of Natural History. I found it a beautiful fit for me. Doing art and craft and design in the service of science and natural history and education, among like-minded people, was serendipitous and amazing. I spent ten years there doing a little of everything regarding museum exhibits, including painting, building, prototyping, researching, illustrating, model building, installing and designing exhibits. It included a month in an African rainforest collecting insects, plants, and information for a biodiversity diorama back home. I evolved into a designer and project manager. Next were three years for a private exhibit design firm, then seven years at the Bronx Zoo (Wildlife Conservation Society) and then eleven years at a museum for children, the last few as Director of Exhibits. All the while I was able to do artwork for these exhibits as well as continue personal work and the occasional art show and commission.
We currently live in Connecticut and I’m grateful to my wife Kristen and our kids Ella and Owen for their support.
Art, life, work, nature, psychology, literature, music are all related. The last two years I've spent more time with music than images, writing and multi-tracking songs. I'm confident that what I learned in Aix is reflected there too: structure, relationship of the parts, harmony, rhythm, counterpoint, background and foreground, what to leave out, when it's finished, when it's forced or overworked, reverence for past masters yet seeking a personal voice. They warned us learning to see would affect more than just painting. Damn, they were right. I thank the teachers and fellow students at the Leo Marchutz School for their continuing great work and for enriching my life.
- Brian Morrissey, February 2026
Selected Work
Follow
Website: www.soundcloud.com/brian-p-morrissey
Artist’s Talk on Zoom
Mark your calendars for an Artist’s Talk with Brian on Zoom on Thursday, March 26th at 1:00 PM Eastern Time. Click here to register ahead of time on Zoom.
Previous Featured Artists
To view featured artists from past months, click here.
February 2026: Suzie Buchholz
January 2026: Mary Wallman
October/November 2025: Susan Crapo (posthumously)
September 2025: Jennifer Warren
August 2025: Karen Silve
June/July 2025: Mary Hamilton
May 2025: Kayla Noble
April 2025: Michèle Hénot Gasparach
March 2025: Ciara Ruddock
February 2025: Barry Hart
December 2024/January 2025: Alan Roberts
November 2024: Ben Haggard
October 2024: Amelia Myre
September 2024: Becky Hagenston
August 2024: Paul Umbarger
June/July 2024: Featured Exhibition in Aix-en-Provence
May 2024: Sharon Rawlins
April 2024: Kate Butler
March 2024: Pauline Bétrancourt
February 2024: Jenna Grotelueschen
January 2024: Mary Leone Duffy
December 2023: Elizabeth Ivers
November 2023: Cole Carothers
October 2023: Grace Darden
September 2023: King David
August 2023: Chris Coffey
July 2023: Jim Toub
June 2023: Jennifer Neel
May 2023: Jan Brogan
April 2023: Sophia Hall
March 2023: Lucy Clare Spooner
February 2023: Samantha Van Heest
December 2022: Hilary Stein
November 2022: Nick Cruz Velleman
October 2022: Miranda Blas
September 2022: Samuel Bjorklund