Josie Morway’s Bird Portraits

WORDS Mary Garner

Making use of a combination of oil and enamel, American artist Josie Morway creates intense, brooding paintings of birds.

Using dramatic drips of paint and geometric lines, Josie’s surreal pieces feature birds in graceful poses. Her subjects sit amidst beds of blooming flowers and foliage, combined with Latin lettering.

PRINTS!! || Unrolling my beautiful artist’s proof from @creaturahousegallery . Only four more days to get a copy of this super limited release print. Link in profile, and happy weekend!

A post shared by josiemorway (@josiemorway) on May 27, 2018 at 7:59am PDT

The use of Latin in her work has symbolic meaning for the artist. “I don’t mean for them to be read too literally, but rather hope they lend a certain feeling of portentousness to the pieces,” Josie told Colossal. “I like referencing religious icon paintings and other forms of ‘serious’ historic painting, but using animals and birds in the place of saints, etc. I’m going for the feeling of narrative realism, but working with a narrative that’s mysterious, missing some information, open to the viewer’s interpretation.”

For more information and to see more of Josie’s work, visit josiemorway.com. You can also follow her on Instagram.

(h/t) thisiscolossal.com