Morgan Samuel Price began her career in 1968 as an illustrator for Hallmark Cards and later became an art director for a small daily newspaper, the News Herald, in Lake County, Ohio. Today she’s an accomplished fine artist and an innovative teacher who says her methods create not only better painters but better thinkers as well.
Price, a graduate of the Ringling School of Art and Design in Sarasota, lives in Altamonte Springs and last year opened Gallery On Park Fine Art at the Park Plaza Hotel on Park Avenue. “The gallery focuses on landscapes,” she says. “There’s nothing like a landscape painting to bring serenity to your environment.”
This issue’s cover image, titled It’s All About Old Glory, shows a patriotically adorned bungalow near the Albin Polasek Museum & Sculpture Gardens. Notes Price: “I always enjoy painting the American flag.”
In this case, she adds, she found the home’s vintage architecture and the adjacent massive oak tree pleasing to the eye, and a challenge to paint. So much so, in fact, that she expects to someday revisit the scene because “I’ll want to create an even more compelling image.”
Price discovered her passion (and her gift) for teaching while living in Ardmore, Oklahoma—where there were no galleries, no museums, no art stores and no art centers. She says: “I realized that teaching was not only a skill but an art form in itself.”
Consequently, she began holding classes on how to paint for adults and children and helped to establish a flourishing visual arts scene in a gritty city mainly known for its oil refineries. Eventually, the town had four thriving art supply stores and, she adds, “nearly everyone had taken up painting.”
Over the course of four decades as a working artist, Price has quantified the creative process through numbers. She’ll tell you that you make 22 decisions with each brushstroke—and can name them all. She has also identified the 23 most common mistakes that beginning painters make—and still closely examines her own work to make certain that she has avoided making them.
In addition, Price has authored two essential instruction books, Turn on the Light: A Touchstone to Plein Air Painting and Oil with a Basic Palette, and produced a library of educational videos and DVDs. As an in-person teacher who has mentored hundreds of artists, she describes herself as “always the most grateful person in the room.”
Winner of an array of awards, Price is a member of Allied Artists of America, the American Artist Professional League (where she was named a Fellow), the Pastel Society of America and the American Society of Marine Artists, among other organizations.
“It’s not what you see,” adds Price. “It’s how you see it. Beauty isn’t confined to famous landmarks. It’s in the world right outside your door.” Or, in this case, near the Polasek. Check out Price’s work in person at Gallery on Park Fine Art or online at morgansamuelprice.com.