No viewer has seen, nor could he imagine that natural light would so subtly, and selectively, adjust itself about its subject. Throughout James Morton's art, one perceives not Realism nor Illusion, but controlled instinctual archetypes, each drawn about a chosen individual. And in Morton's work, the glazes are an essential repertoire. Carnation is the painter's ultimate fulfillment, it is his ideal, the element par excellence of his art, and the very essence of painting. I am convinced for my part that, in order to produce them, they mixed very bright colors together.
Artists still have much, today perhaps far more, to add to the vocabulary of the flesh.
In all this, Morton's nudes stand out in one particular. Morton's building on unexhausted potentials in past art is coupled with a freedom in subject only now possible. Both the lower angle of a clear, soft light flowing from the canvas right, and even more, the response of flesh in nuances of tint and tone contribute to an emergent, awakening effect. Recently, a research study into beauty among diverse cultures concluded that, although no common rationale emerged, all found beautiful what in their respective worlds appeared vital, healthy, reproductive. Morton's art stands firm among our best today.