The Mysterious Barricades
The Mysterious Barricades - Watercolour on paper, 2021, 28.5” x 36.5” (SOLD)
In the hinterland between tangled wilderness and tidy civilization is where I place the semi-fictitious narratives which make up my drawings and paintings. These narratives chronicle a semi-fictitious realm that is both water-bound and terrestrial. This world is built on the natural sciences, mythology, musicology rumours, hyperbole, and folklore.
Sometimes based on legend or dreams or just a remnant of something overheard, my compositions are charts of a kind. They map a purgatory inhabited by wandering nomads, tricky hobos, long-dead composers, defunct societies, distant relatives, extinct animals, forgotten deities, and mythical beasts who all reluctantly coexist somewhere between harmony and discord.
My thematic explorations touch on migration, encroachment, ecological decay, extirpation, and extinction. The media I use range from oil on panel, watercolour, pen and ink, and intaglio printmaking processes. I also make short, animated films with similar themes.
ABOUT PAUL MORSTAD
Taking inspiration from a wide variety of sources, Paul is an avid bird watcher, musician and traveller. His interests in zoology, geography, history, literature, and exploration have led him on many journeys—including canoe expeditions of the canals of northern Europe and walking safaris through the East African savannahs.
Paul has shown his work in Montreal, Paris, Toronto, Seattle, Vancouver, Miami, and Portland, Oregon. His work belongs to private collections around the world. He studied visual art and animation at the Emily Carr University of Art and Design. When not painting and drawing, Paul can be found on his bike looking for birds or hanging out with his wife and daughter in Vancouver, BC.
Secret of the Cove - Watercolour on paper, 2021, 36.5” x 54.5” (SOLD)
Welcome to Kentucky - Watercolour on paper, 2021, 28.5” x 36.5” (SOLD)
St. Vincent Amazon - Watercolour on paper, 2021, 28.5” x 36.5” (SOLD)
Maldives Manta Society - Watercolour on paper, 2019, 28.5” x 36.5” (framed)
Paul Klee, the Pelican and the Carolina Parakeet, 2018, 28.5” x 36.5” (framed)
The Town Musicians of Salzburg - Watercolour on paper, 2021, 36.5” x 54.5” (framed)
Who Cooks for You II - Watercolour on paper, 2021, 28.5” x 36.5” (SOLD)
Les nuages - Watercolour on paper, 2021, 28.5” x 36.5” (framed)
Little by Little - Watercolour on paper, 2018, 39” x 47” (framed)
