Shaun Morris, 'Stolen Car'

January is a memory, the snow's all melted but the snowdrops are in full effect.  As I write, the sun's lighting up the street outside my window and it feels like 2013 might soon start waking up properly.  We've still got February to navigate, and these days the weather can astonish us at any time, but this month always feels like a shorter haul and, last time I looked, the planet still goes in only one direction.

It feels like time to get out and about a bit more and visiting a few exhibitions in the near future is a priority.  One of these will be 'Stolen Car', - an exhibition of paintings by my friend Shaun Morris which opens soon in Rugby.  Regular readers will know I exhibited some paintings alongside Shaun and the other members of the Indigo Octagon collective in Birmingham last November.  That show included several of his nocturnal paintings of the world beneath the elevated M5 motorway to the west of Birmingham.  I know the show's title reflects Shaun's love of Bruce Springsteen so perhaps the M5 is his very own 'Thunder Road'.  In Rugby, he'll be exhibiting the whole series and I'm looking forward to seeing them all together.  

Paintings By Shaun Morris  (L & C) At 'If A Picture Paints A Thousand
Words Then Why Can't I Paint' Exhibition, Birmingham, 2013

Shaun Morris, 'Stolen Car' Painting, Oil On Canvas, 2012

Shaun Morris, 'Stolen Car' Painting,
Oil On Canvas, 2012

The following is from Shaun's press release for the show...

"The work on display represents the artist's first serious collection of landscape painting, and reflect his interest in depicting the so called 'edgelands': the forgotten, overlooked, nowhere zones that exist between the city or town and the countryside.  Feeling and experience are held in these vivid images that represent an individual and personal vision from this emerging artist, and his close relationship to this rarely represented landscape." [1.]

Whilst Shaun's paintings focus on the M5, Birmingham is completely girded by Motorways.  He has, on occasion, also found himself below the renowned Spaghetti Junction, north of the city.  I found myself in that same bizarre underworld of concrete and canals beneath the M6 a few weeks ago and can understand exactly why he became fascinated by the unique atmosphere and experiences to be had in such places.  Without wanting to steal Shaun's thunder, I hope to post some of my own photographs of the subject here fairly soon.  Here are two to be going on with...

The 'Stolen Car' Exhibition can be seen at Floor One Gallery, Rugby Art Gallery & Museum, between Saturday 9th February and Friday 22nd February.  You can read more on the Indigo Octagon Facebook page and see many of the paintings in various posts on Shaun's blog.  Rugby also lies adjacent to a motorway (M1), and is on a main rail line, so it's easy to get there.  I'd urge you to go to see the work for real.

[1.]: Press Release for 'Stolen Car, New Paintings By Shaun Morris', Floor One Gallery, Rugby Art Gallery & Museum, 2013