Morgan Allender (b.1982) works within the medium of large-scale oil paintings to create evocative works that sit within the liminal space between landscape and still-life. Her boldly gestural paintings use botanical subjects to underpin mysterious, layered windows of light and dark. Meditations on the connection between nature and the human heart, they are built upon a foundation of technical knowledge and psychological colour theory.
Morgan has been awarded and shortlisted for a number of national prizes, including the Fleurieu Biennale Prize (winner and finalist), The Hutchins Australian Contemporary Art Prize (finalist), the Muswellbrook Prize (finalist), The Country Arts Breaking Ground Award (winner), and the Waterhouse Prize (finalist). Her paintings feature in private collections throughout Australia, the USA, the UK, Italy and Japan.
Her dual interests and training in the areas of fine art and horticultural design place her within a long lineage of painters, writers and sculptors whose work is a reflection of time spent both in the studio and in the making of gardens as artform. Her studio is in a converted barn in the Adelaide Hills, set within two acres of garden she has created from scratch on a previously deserted site. This stimulates a cyclical flow of ideas and inspiration between her canvasses and the surrounding natural environment.