BAD NEWS AND GOOD NEWS

During the time I was teaching on my residential at Conwy this year I had notice that I had been rejected for the 2018 Waterside Open at Sale.  I was absolutely 'floored' especially as it was new work from the previous successful entry.  Similar new work had been sent to another gallery.  Two days after the rejection I had word that Stockport War Memorial and Art Gallery had accepted my submission and that I was to have a solo exhibition sometime in 2019/2020...hopefully earlier than later as I have lots of new unseen work ready.   It certainly is a strange world.

Even better news...one picture was sold.

GOOD START TO 2018...visit St Helen's World of Glass to see 20 new paintings on the Capsule Wall, very close to the great restaurant...street scenes of Market Street Manchester. All at a great price of £45. 

July 2017...very thrilled about getting this picture and another one like it in the St . Helen's World of Glass 'Annual Open Art Competition'...open now until Friday 1st September...Monday to Saturday10am - 5pm. This series is called 'Altered Reality'.

GREAT NEWS...THIS PICTURE...'Manchester 1' has just been accepted along with a similar one into St Helens World of Glass exhibition called 'Reality Removed' which opens on Saturday11th March up to Friday 28th April at 10am.   ...forgot to mention that one of the two pictures was sold. 

LATEST NEWS...Bee will be at Salford Museum and Art Gallery on Wednesday 14th December, 5 -8pm...together with more of the 'By Hand' exhibitors.

Gift Vouchers available...click the link below to see the poster and gift voucher...

https://shop.salfordcommunityleisure.co.uk/collections/memberships/products/by-hand

WATCH OUT...Bee will be on the television again.

Bee will be on a new shopping channel on Saturday, 21st May demonstrating her art products.

She is timetabled to be on air at 10am, 1pm and 3pm.

Hope that you can join us on the HOCHANDA  tv, Sky 633 (24/7), Freeview 39(6am - 9pm)and Freesat 87(24/7).

Three different times for three different products, all at very special prices.

Some successful outcomes...April 2016

I didn't get in the Great Northern again this year BUT I did get one painting in the WATERSIDE OPEN.  This is a bi-ennial exhibition in the Waterside Arts Centre in Sale, Trafford, M33 7ZF and it's open right through until 2nd. July

I do hope that you can get to see it...the standard and inventiveness is superb.  I am still in shock that I am in it.

The Tomato Plant Story

Earlier this year I was given four tomato plants.  They were carefully transplanted and nurtured in every way while we looked forward to a grand harvest later in the year.  Despite me having quite ‘green fingers ‘ and a good track record for growing things, these persistently refused to grow at all.  Eventually they were abandoned completely as the other vegetation around them bloomed and blossomed. 

…and the moral of the story…late blooms often have the best stock…

Did I tell you the story of how I didn’t go to art school until I was thirty something?

PURE BRUSH MARKS STRAIGHT FROM THE SOUL

I firmly believe that everyone can draw and paint.

Kids at reception and early junior school have no inhibitions at all and can delight everyone with their free expression, direct and forthright observations and pure brush marks straight from the soul.

Round about the age of seven years something happens that negates this freedom and all the children have a pencil in one hand and the ‘safety blanket’ of a rubber in the other.  I have personally seen this over a five year period when I went in about twenty different junior schools as a freelance artist.  A slow decline ensues where creativity is lost in the  mechanics of the education system. See Sir Ken Robinson’s Ted Talk (2006), “How schools kill creativity.”

I was very lucky at my junior school as we were given a great deal of time to the three major topics, reading, writing and arithmetic including regular spelling and mental arithmetic tests and the same amount of time to sport and creative pursuits. . So at the age of seven onwards I enjoyed all the challenges of ‘times tables’, regular tests on everything that we had learned and I latched on to painting very quickly. This resulted in my work often being framed and displayed along the school corridors.    

Sometime after that I knew early on in my life what I wanted to do when I grew up.  I wanted to be a textile designer.  This desire stayed with me for the next ten years but was halted when I failed to get in a major textile company as one of their trainee designers.  I drifted into office work and became a secretary working for a major industrial company in Trafford Park, Manchester.  Very soon creativity gave way to marriage and a family.

Fast forward some twenty years later and all was about to change when I saw a young girl being accepted into art school for copying a ‘Lowry’ picture.  Immediately I said, “I can do better than that!” and straight away began the process of applying to Bolton College of Art to do my foundation year followed by three more years to get my honours degree in design.  Some years before this, I had been thinking for a long time about becoming a teacher and it seemed a better plan to get a degree first.  I was the first person in our family to do this so it was a double celebration. Not too long after that I started my teaching career in adult education.  I also wanted to teach myself everything there was to know about my chosen topics which were drawing and painting with watercolour. Each year I set myself a target to get as much information about one aspect of art.  Then it was a case of practice, practice and more practice.

Fast forward now to the present day and I am still learning about my specialities.  But now I am due to teach in a magnificent luxury hotel in Conwy, North Wales and I have a small practice of private art students who meet on a regular basis in my own garden studio. I have travelled all over the world teaching on 19 cruise ships and taught in private homes in many other exotic places. 

Over the years I have developed a very creative and unique way to paint with freedom and expression without the need for the child’s ‘safety blanket’.  I never became a fabric designer but now I paint brush marks straight from the soul and teach everyone that I meet to do the same thing because everyone can draw and paint - you just need some techniques, the right environment and a dam good teacher.

..still Monday 23rd March...I forgot to mention that I have a new title...I am now officially an Ambassador for St. Cuthbert's Mill.   For many years now this paper making company in Somerset has supplied me with their A5 size Tester Packs and paper to demonstrate watercolour techniques on.  This is because I truly believe that it is the best paper in the world; it's surface strength, colour and texture all work together to give me the best finished product.  All my students learn about painting with this very powerful paper.  I have been an Art Judge three times and now I have the an amazing title...Ambassador.

Monday 23rd March
Well it's been a bit quiet here...very much in a reflective mood...lots to do but no motivation.  This will last for some time and I use these moments to plan ahead 
and decide what to do next and thnking about Albert Einstein's words...
"Not everything that counts, can be counted and not everything that can be 
counted, couns."

Sunday 8th March
STATUES
Michael Angelo said, “Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it’s the task of the sculptor to discover it.”
Did you see the CT scan taken of an ancient Buddhist statue that is almost 1,000 years old?
Everyone was surprised to find a mummified body inside and they even know his name, Liu Quan.
I bet that Michael didn’t know that would happen to a statue.

Wednesday, 4th March...The 'Eureka' Moment

Last week one of my regular students dashed into the studio just before the class was about to start and said, "I've just been transformed!". We all looked up with our imaginations running riot. Our previous class was all about looking at colour mixing in a slightly different way than usual. Every one had enjoyed it but this lady went on to say how much she had got out of the information and that by practising more at home she had this wonderful 'moment of clarity'. Not only was this in her art but it also crossed over into her personal life so she was totally 'transformed' and energised.

Sunday 1st March...2nd short video, 5 minutes...about my miniature painting equipment...bit.ly/1EBDthL

THE SECOND CHALLENGE OF 2015

The first challenge for this year has been completed, that was to set up the new www.beemorrison.co.uk website.  The second challenge is already here and is the next application for the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair.  The deadline is the 16^th March and the event itself will take place in early October. Last year’s designs have been modified and improved plus I have revisited my ‘hand-made chain’ ideas and have expanded them to four different designs.  Getting in a high level designer fair might seem impossible. Follow the advice of Saint Francis of Assisi:
“Start by doing what’s necessary, then do what’s possible and suddenly you are already doing the impossible”.

18th February

THE BEST OF BOTH WORLDS

Just a few months ago a new shop opened in the high street of Monton village where I live –it was a tattoo parlour. It had been around for some time before, but it was tucked away down a side street so most people didn’t know that it was there.

It reminded me of a lecture that I gave to all the other students on my course at art school. Mine was on tattoos. Everyone had to present lectures as part of the course.

I picked tattoos as a subject because there was a local shop not far away where I could get all my information. I had a brilliant idea for the finale to the talk all worked out by revealing my own tattoo but I chickened out, unlike some people on the television at the moment who now regret ever having it done and need to get their work of art taken away.

This new shop has the best of both worlds: half the shop puts the tattoos on and the other half takes them off.

15^th February

Little girl painting in class,

Teacher asks, “What are you painting?”

Little girl says, “God, miss.”

Teacher, “But nobody knows what God looks like.”

Little girl, “They will soon.”

11^th February 

Every year since I have completed my art training many year’s ago I have always set myself a challenge to learn something new about art and art techniques.   This year was completely different.  I needed a brand new look for my website.  In the past I had my expert Deborah who did everything for me since 2002. 2015 was to be very different.  I had to do it myself and a whole new set of learning had to take place but this time nothing to do with my area of expertise.  This time it was meta tags and seo’s and more.  So what you see on this website is all my work – hopefully there’s not to many errors and hopefully you will like it. So it was after all another of life's challenges.   Here's to more. Cheers.
 (In memory of 11^th February 1915).

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