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“The one-room schoolhouse goes back to the founding of our great country,” says artist Morgan Weistling. “It evolved through the decades but the general idea remained the same. I painted the time period that I know and love best, the post Civil War era. I decided to place the teacher as the focal point, a tribute to all the dedicated teachers that help build this nation.
“This is a rural country schoolhouse and I wanted to portray a class that was a little more primitive. They were still using individual chalk boards instead of pen and paper (because of the cost of paper then). No fancy bows and frilly dresses for these kids. I imagined these children as coming from a farming community as well as tradesmen’s homes.
“In my mind, each child has a story. Some are related to each other. There is the girl who gets jealous because another girl is talking to a boy she likes. There is the boy with adoring eyes for his teacher and the girl that has eyes on him. Then there’s the kid who is more interested in his chalk than the lesson and the boy who really is having trouble understanding the lesson. I show a little slice of each of their personalities. Teachers and their classes from this period often appear grim-faced in photographs because of the long exposures required to capture the image. But children are not grim! I used real children as my models to make this room feel alive. I also imagined a background story for the teacher. She is new to her profession, full of enthusiasm yet a little naïve about whom she is entrusted to teach. From crushes to jealousy to apathy to determination, it’s all there in that little one room schoolhouse.”
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Morgan Weistling began his artistic training on his father’s lap at 19 months
of age, where he learned how to draw and more importantly, use his
imagination. Capitalizing on his father’s talent for telling a story in comic
strip form, Morgan began to develop a sense of narrative in his drawing. “It
was here that art became a language for me.” At the age of 12, Morgan applied
his interest in art to studying his father’s art books and began his art
school studies at the Brandes Art Institute at 15. Working in a Los Angeles
art supply store while attending art school, Morgan chanced to show his
artwork to a prominent illustrator. As a result of their encounter, at the
age of 19, Weistling found himself employed at a top movie poster agency in
Hollywood. For the next 14 years, Morgan illustrated for every movie studio in
Hollywood. His clients included Universal/Amblin Entertainment, Disney, MGM,
Paramount, 20th Century Fox, Warner Brothers, Columbia Pictures and TriStar.
In addition to movie posters, Weistling created all the cover artwork for the
video series, McGee and Me for Focus on the Family and his art can be seen on
numerous magazine, book, CD and video covers as well as Sega pinball
machines. Since he has made fine art the focus of his art career, the
collector demand for his originals has been overwhelming.
With his masterful use of oils, Morgan Weistling brings a scene to life with
spectacular lighting, creating a sense of wonder and engaging the viewer’s
imagination and emotion. His dreamlike images touch the viewer’s heart, using
more than sentimentality to engage the viewer. His canvases are filled with
brushwork that tells a story beyond the subject matter. Like a skilled movie
director, he manipulates the focus of interest with suggestions and
impressions of forms that are barely realized and allow the viewer’s
imagination to fill in the details. “There is a story underneath the story of
my paintings,” Morgan adds, “I don’t hide the process of how I painted it. You
can see the layers and count the strokes it took to get there. With some
styles of painting, the closer you get to the canvas, the more you will see.
With mine, the more you step back, the more detail you will see. That’s not
easy, which is why it fascinates me.” Morgan Weistling follows in the
footsteps of the masters he admires, John Singer Sargent, Anders Zorn and
Nicolai Fechin as well as many others. In all of his vibrant work, from
western art to feminine forms, Weistling crafts a narrative, driven by
clarity, focus and purpose, drawing on images inspired by his beliefs and
scenes from daily life. “My hope is that people will enjoy viewing my artwork
as much I enjoyed painting it. For me, art is my language used to
communicate to others how I see God’s creation. When I experience another
artist’s work, I love to see through their eyes and find out as much about the
artist as the subject they painted. That is what makes art so interesting.”
Weistling, a highly sought-after teacher, conducts private workshops with
juried students and teaches at the prestigious Scottsdale Artist School.
Recent honors and awards include the Patron’s Choice Award and the Trustees
Purchase Award at the Autry Museum of Western Heritage in Los Angeles, CA, the
Prix de West Purchase Award at the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum
in Oklahoma City, OK, and the Patron's Choice Award at the Autry Museum of
Western Heritage. Weistling's book, The Image of Christ, was a finalist for
the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association Gold Medallion Book Award.
Weistling and his artist wife JoAnn, whom he met in art school, have been
married for 14 years. Their 9 year-old daughter is often a model in
Weistling’s paintings. They make their home in California.
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