Luis Morris

Society Membership:

Royal Institute of Oil Painters

Biographical details:

1963 Born 24th October in Wrexham

1984 Left an Architecture degree course at Nottingham University to join De La Rue as an apprentice banknote designer.

Over the next 13 years designed currencies for several countries around the world.

Painting offers me the chance to celebrate light and the sensual joy derived from seeing. Good paintings are like diary pages-free from the self-editing that goes on when the painter worries what others may think. I like paintings that straddle the boundary between Abstract and Representational.

Method of working:

I usually work in oil on shop bought canvas or MDF sealed and primed with Gesso. I work relatively small- average canvas size is 16 x 12 inches. I like to do preparatory tonal sketches in charcoal, as these help to work out composition and decide what canvas size to use. I use flat acrylic brushes because of the range of marks you can get with them, from flat patches of colour to sharp lines and dots. As the brush gets older the painting get less crisp, but this isnt always a bad thing. If I could, I would always work from life. I do work from photos I have taken, trying to remember what it was like when I was there, but am annoyed by the inevitable comparison with this other 2 -dimensional image.

Scholarships, Awards, Prizes:

2008 Purely Personal Award, Royal Institute of Oil Painters

2006 Winsor & Newton Non-Members Award, Royal Institute of Oil Painters

The art supplier Cass Art has proudly supported Sky Arts' search for portraiture talent, which debuted on television screens earlier this month. The show comprises of four Sky Arts festivals held in different cities, where one artist goes forward to the semi-final. The contestants will compete in Paris and paint celebrity sitter Sophie Dahl under the watchful eye of the judges: Kathleen Soriano, Director of Exhibitions at the Royal Academy, Kate Bryan, Head of Contemporary at the Fine Art Society and portrait artist Tai-Shan Schierenberg.

Louis Morris was announced the winner of the London heat on 5th November 2013. With a degree in Architecture and a background in bank note design, he stunned television audiences and the judges with his approach to portraiture.