Paul Morrison is an English painter. He was born in Liverpool in 1966, and received a BA in fine art from Sheffield City Polytechnic. He then continued his studies at Goldsmiths College of Art in London, where he graduated with an MA in 1998. He also spent two years (1983-5) studying at Hugh Baird College. His first one-person show was in London in 1996 and since then he has displayed his work in various locations across the UK, Europe and America. In 2002 he was included in the Jerwood Painting Prize, and he has also exhibited at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles in 2000 and at the Royal Academy in London in 2002. Morrison lives and works in Sheffield. He is best known for his large monochromatic botanical landscapes that are at once both familiar and foreign: Familiar because his subjectsâtrees, flora, and their natural surroundingsâare immediately recognizable, and foreign because he can cause a mere dandelion or weed to become threatening due to its immense size and lack of color. Phytochrome is typical of this aspect of the artist's work. All his images are painted in two coats of acrylic paint. They are then scanned into a computer, manipulated and projected onto the canvas. The different elements tend to be disproportionate in size: tiny plants become huge, while massive trees shrink. This is called 'cognitive landscape'.
