This ambitious painting, Salmon Nets was painted the year after Morrison had moved from Catterline to Montrose in 1965 and most likely depicts St Cyrus beach. Since arriving in the northeast from Glasgow, Morrison had been drawn to paint aspects of the local fishing community and boats and nets provided ample subject for the young painter, the salmon season operating between February and August of each year. In this work, the tangle of nets and receding upright posts draws the eye into the picture plane, and outward towards the sea and opaque sky beyond. It was at this moment that Morrison was perhaps most closely aligned with the work of his friend and contemporary Joan Eardley. Soon after Morrison’s move to Montrose, he began to experiment with a new visual language with a focus on the underlying formal qualities of the landscape.
About James Morrison
Born in Glasgow in 1932, James Morrison was one of the most significant Scottish landscape painters of the post-war period. He studied at Glasgow School of Art from 1950–54, developing the rigorous observational practice and draughtsmanship that would underpin a career spanning more than six decades. While his early paintings focused on the streets and tenements of Glasgow, his move to Catterline in 1958 marked a decisive shift towards landscape and established many of the themes that would define his mature work.
