05 Mar ARTIST SPOTLIGHTS: MORGAN IRONS

Morgan Irons pays tribute to the timeless spirit of Western women and men in oil-on-linen scenes in the realistic yet romantic style of 19th-century Naturalist artists, including France’s Jean-François Millet and Americans Thomas Cole and Winslow Homer. Her paintings engage viewers with such quietly assured power that it may be surprising to learn that she is largely self-taught and has pursued a life in art only over the past eight years.

Born in Durango, Colorado, and raised mostly in Boise, Idaho, after some brief time in Alaska, she was “always the art kid in school, with an aptitude for drawing,” she says. “But I did not know you could make a living doing art.” Instead, she earned a degree in psychology from St. Louis University, then worked briefly “on the logistics side of a fishing and bear-viewing fly-in lodge in Alaska,” before deciding to move to “the next biggest, most beautiful place,” Montana. She settled in a cabin outside Bozeman, adopted an adorable pit-husky mix she named Bear, and secured a testing job in the neuropsychology department at a local hospital.

While work didn’t bring Irons much satisfaction, life in Bozeman did, not least for the thriving cultural scene. She began meeting local artists and was introduced to painter and gallerist Carrie Wild of Gallery Wild in Jackson and Santa Fe when she was passing through town. “I realized I was on the wrong track,” she says. Almost immediately, Irons quit her job, bought art supplies, and checked out from the library the widely revered self-instruction book Alla Prima: Everything I Know About Painting, by American master Richard Schmid. She sought further guidance and skill-honing through a one-afternoon workshop at the Malibu studio of Romantic Realist Jeremy Lipking; a three-day portrait workshop at the Scottsdale Artists’ School led by top figurative artist Joshua LaRock; and a one-month intensive traditional drawing course at the Grand Central Atelier in New York City.

The fruits of those studies can be seen in Irons’s growing body of work. That includes a series she groups under the heading Wheat Field Theater, which she describes as “focusing on women’s roles in sustaining the land. It feels more important than ever to protect these archetypes.”

Mother | Oil on Linen | 60 x 48 inches | 2024

One recent example is Mother, a powerful portrait of a woman nurturing her young one while working the fields. “I wanted viewers to feel this solid, structured balance between pioneer’s work and mother’s work,” the artist says of the painting, which she worked on for almost a year, from stretching the linen surface and toning it with a raw umber wash; to drawing the composition in soft vine charcoal; to adding layer after layer of oil paint in thin glazes to reflect light and conjure luminescent depth. “I’ve had a lot of beautiful feedback from mothers who look at that painting and really feel acknowledged in their role.”

Symphony No. 6 | Oil on Linen | 18 x 24 inches | 2024

Irons is represented by Old Main Gallery and Framing in Bozeman, Montana; and Arcadia Contemporary in New York, New York.

Based in Marin County, California, Norman Kolpas is the author of more than 40 books and hundreds of articles. He also teaches nonfiction writing in The Writers’ Program at UCLA Extension.