Today we’d like to introduce you to Morna Strengholt
Hi Morna, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
As a child in Texas, I enjoyed drawing on my black board, on Saturdays I went to a craft class at the Women’s Pallet Club and when I was nine I took an oil painting class there. We painted a different still life every week using a limited pallet of 2 reds, 2 yellows, 2 blues and white. At twelve, the pallet club gave me a one man show of my work and I took private watercolor lessons from a French visiting artist. During my high school years I spent summers auditing collage painting classes at Sul Ross State College. I began entering competition and won awards. I attended Texas Technological College in Architecture for a year and transferred to North Texas State College in Fine Arts. With senior standing I transferred to Upper Division Drawing and Painting at Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles, California. I married and moved to Northern California, Monte Rio, where I started teaching art in a Free School. Moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan and taught art to adults in a Physically or Otherwise Impaired Program for 12 years. Moved aboard a 37′ sailboat on the East Coast and in 1996 landed in Islamorada, I opened an art gallery Artamorada at the Rain Barrel. After hurricane Irma I moved inland to the Mount Dora Area. My work can be found at Artisans Gallery in Mount Dora and I am President of Mount Dora Art League, founded in 1926. I am a member of Mount Dora Center for the Arts and Lake County Art Museum. I have recently won awards from Urban Sketchers Orlando and other Plein Air and Fine Art Competitions.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Not too bumpy, I have been able to work in the art field, teaching and selling art enough to feed, shelter and cloth myself and my family. Never rich with money but rich in experiences full of joy. Lived through any hard times just rode the horse in the direction it was going.
Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your work?
I am always creating something, painting, drawing, writing. My first inspirations were the French Impressionists. I started painting in oils, then watercolor and mostly I paint in acrylic. I enjoy making art from my dried acrylic palettes. Love to paint Plein Air, landscapes and seascape. Enjoy painting and drawing people. I keep a sketch book with me to draw random people at the airport, doctor’s office, people on the street. I like playing in different medias, clay, concrete, pastels and painting on different surfaces, coconut, crab shells, gourds, window screens. I’ve painted large murals in Islamorada and Punta Gorda. I was known in the Keys as the mermaid lady, putting out a couple of mermaid calendars. Proud of winning Best of Show when the judge was from Giverny France also being in San Francisco’s Cory gallery with Salvador Dali and John Lennon and Yoko’s Bag I and Bag II. I’m proud of being President of Mount Dora Art League, It’s a lot of work but getting together with artists in the area and being a part of the local art world is a joy.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
Orlando is a big city full of art and culture, exciting and dramatic. Love that but the traffic I can not tolerate..
Contact Info:
- Instagram: @Mornasart @Mornasart46
