Contemporary expressionist painter, Morgan Peyton, is an artist who sees into – and beyond – the apparent world around us. Painting the imaginal spaces, she transforms an ordinary scene into a new world in tune with her imagination.
Born on the East Coast, Peyton started her formal training at the Baldwin School, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, where she was awarded the Art Prize for a graduating student. Her liberal arts studies continued at Hollins College, Virginia, in a four-year program of drawing, painting, sculpture and art history. This included a partial year’s study of art history in London, England. This was the origin of a life-long love of visiting museums everywhere she travels.
Upon graduation, she chose Washington, DC for a position with a national historic preservation organization, followed by a curatorship of an historic house in a small city, with additional studies in architecture and decorative arts of the English country house. Later, she worked in marketing, communications and publications for a museum.
About
Peyton founded her own fine art consultancy business in 1984 after being inspired by her godmother, then residing in Monaco, who sourced fine paintings for sale through specialized art galleries. Peyton’s career as private art advisor working on the East Coast, evolved over two decades, giving her an immersive experience in the art world. This led her to meet a wide variety of talented artists – whose works she placed in private art collections, business organizations, educational and government institutions.
With a passion for creating her own art, and calling her to further studies, Peyton devoted herself to learning from a master painter as an investment in continuing painting as her first love.
At that time, she began showing her art in local exhibitions, eventually leading to exhibiting two paintings as part of a gala event at The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC.
In 2014, she made a significant change by moving her axis from East Coast to West Coast in Santa Barbara, California. Here, she was drawn to the California light, and proximity to the changing dynamics of deep blues and greens of the Pacific Ocean. Now, she works inspired by the spirit of place of the mountain areas of Southern California that have enhanced her work in new ways. This has been a period of metamorphosis and finding her muse.
Today, Peyton embraces a new freedom to paint from her inner expression. More impressionistic than her previous work, she moves beyond traditional norms while embracing time-honored techniques of drawing and painting.
Her world is seen now from a softer lens. Perhaps it is a view from a perspective using a larger aperture of the eye and heart – while seeing light and color -- and depicting the longing in her work for freedom of expression.
“Le Cathedral, 1908”, by Auguste Rodin Carved stone, Musee Rodin, Paris Photograph: Morgan Peyton
Education
2011-2013 William Woodward School of Fine Art, Warrenton, VA Master painter, William Woodward (former dir. of George Washington Univ. MFA program)
2008 Studied plein air painting on Monhegan Island, Maine with Jacqueline Baldini
2010 Studied figurative sculpture with Antonio Antoni, Brookgreen Gardens, South Carolina
1980 The Attingham Summer School, England, for the study of English Country House and decorative arts, Certificate
1970-74 Bachelor of Fine Arts, BFA in painting and sculpture; Minor in art history, Hollins College, Virginia
1966-70 Studied drawing and painting with Ruth Fackenthal, Baldwin School, Bryn Mawr, PA; awarded the Art Prize