A Tribute to Jacqui Morgan

(1939 – July 3, 2013)

Master Watercolorist and Teacher

Sadly, Jacqui passed away a month ago and as a grateful student,
I want to pay tribute to her art, her breakthrough career and friendship:

 

Jacqui’s amazing talent was so grounded in her love of “seeing.”

The first time I was aware of her work was “The Joy of Seeing” poster

which was a “shoutout” for color, graphic form and invention. It spoke to me….

I started taking her classes almost 30 years ago during her Illustrator years.

Holding her own as one of the first woman illustrators gaining a reputation in the

60s and 70s was impressive…..Excelling in waterccolor techniques in the 80s and 90s,

she drew “Light” so solidly with Color, that I thought her

forms as solid as sculpture….

 

Her success lies in choosing her Light -bathed forms.
They leap off the page.

Her love of texture and detail in difficult projects
gave her work heroic scale….

And her true love was the Nude, the human form

in its organic intertwined complexity designed against

water-flooded backgrounds of watercolor blooms….

Her technique was dramatic, loose and controlled all at once,

a product of her commitment to knowing what watercolor can do…

Looking for mastery to surprise us at the dangerous edge,

at the border of an intuitively genius success or a ruined

overworked watercolor (which she never did!).

 

And her teaching (at Pratt and F I T) … She wanted others to share her gifts of skill,

expression and exceptional vision through this medium she loved……….

And tributes should and will go to her for her life of commitment

and her beautiful body of work.

All of us who learned from her must feel a deep gratitude

from knowing her work and example….

seeing in her what we imagined for ourselves —

a fierce dedication to an artistic life well-lived…..

http://www.jacquimorgan.com

Jacqui, Thank you.  From Lois

Jacqui Morgan’s FIT Memorial Service is scheduled for

Thursday, September 19th from 5:15–6:30 pm at the Katie Murphy Amphitheatre

in the Pomerantz Center (D-Building, 27th Street at Seventh Avenue).