About Morag
Across various themes, techniques, and media, one element unites Morag Charlton’s diverse work: process. “When I look back on my body of work which is thematically and technically quite varied, the common thread is a narrative, a story telling, a complex rhythm of senses working together to produce a piece of art. A portrait is a landscape and a landscape a portrait. A line is a journey and a splash of color a musical note. A story can be complex and conceptual or more simple and subtle.”
From her debut solo exhibition “Palimpsest” in 1996 to her current pen and ink and watercolor sketching outdoors, Morag Charlton shifts between small and large scale work using mixed media, oils, and acrylic on paper and canvas, sculpture as art and sculpture as props for theatre and theatre design.
Thematically diverse collections of work span her decades long career, uniting history, identity, and what it means to be human: probing African colonial history, WW1, slavery, the Civil Rights Movement, plants and machines, self representation/Instagram culture and ephemerality. Most recently she has been producing portraiture works, painting from old black and white family photos and also taking on portrait commissions.
Morag has exhibited extensively in both solo, group and juried exhibitions and her work can be found in corporate and private collections.
Her educational background includes studying at the Michaelis School of Fine Art in Cape Town, South Africa, and at the Gage Academy in Seattle, USA. In 2001 Morag Charlton was an artist in residence at the International School of Art in Umbria Italy. She has taught at risk youth at Artspace in Raleigh and private drawing studios. In 1997 Morag began working with Burning Coal Theatre Company in Raleigh, NC and has collaborated with Rebecca Holderness (director) on 7 productions as set designer and creator.
Born and raised in Cape Town, South Africa, she moved to the USA in 1983 and currently lives in Chapel Hill, NC.