Sharon Rowley Morgio

Welcome to my website

Artist's Statement

After studying oil painting and art education at Hartford Art School, teaching art in public school
for 4 years, I took other paths, utilizing my painting background through composition and illustration in graphic design and calligraphy work. Life took me down several paths, including time to raise a family and to work in my husband's business as office manager. In 2006, I returned to painting by taking a class in watercolor. I became hooked on the medium, loving its fluidity, transparency and layering possibilities, and enjoyed a return to painting for my own enjoyment. I joined a few local art leagues, entering shows and eventually joining an artist-run gallery in New Haven for many years.

I am currently working in water mixable oils and mixed media as I continue on my artistic journey. The human figure has been a favorite subject to draw and paint. I enjoy using the figure as a subject of mixed media imagery, adding patterns of calligraphic marks, a throwback to the years I spent as a lettering artist. I am a quiet observer of people;
I love to watch them, imagine their stories or observe their interactions with others. There is a visual language, spoken without words, conveyed by body language or positioning of subject, enhanced by surroundings, that conveys a feeling or emotion. Connections between people, or among humans and their surroundings, are what interest me.

Birds have been a favorite subject of my watercolor work. Again as a quiet observer, their actions and antics always delight and inspire me to capture them with brush and paint. Although they act on instinct, somehow they seem almost human in their behavior. I view them as symbols of hope and constancy in a rather daunting and uncertain world.

For the past four years, another area of enjoyment has been plein air outings with the Hamden Art League plein air group and others, as I explore landscape painting on site, often adding a figure or two to the composition. This became a great way to socialize and paint with others during the pandemic and has continued as a way to enjoy nature while painting my impressions in both oil and gouache.

Although I paint in oils, watercolor, gouache and mixed media, the medium is not as important as what I try to communicate. They are all avenues of self-expression by which I hope to speak to the viewer. Enjoy!

Resume

BFA in Art Ed and Painting, 1973, Hartford Art School of the University of Hartford
Taught Elementary Art in the North Branford, CT School System
Graduate studies at Southern CT State University
Studied calligraphy and watercolor painting at Creative Arts Workshop, New Haven, CT
Taught for North Haven Adult Ed, Amity Adult Ed, Guilford Handcraft Center and Branford Summer Studies children's art program
Studied calligraphy with Arthur Baker, Philip Bouwsma, Pamela LaRegina, Gottfried Pott, Carl Rohrs and numerous others
Worked as a freelance calligrapher doing business as Goosefeather Graphics
Designed over 50 greeting cards for the former Recycled Paper Products Card Company
Exhibits throughout Connecticut
Member of the Hamden (CT) Art League, Arts Council of Greater New Haven, Connecticut Watercolor Society, Madison (CT) Art Society, New Haven Paint & Clay Club, Guilford (CT) Art League, Clinton (CT) Art Society, CT Women Artists, Branford Arts and Cultural Alliance.