Studio Sunday artist Jenny Morgan is a painter based in New York. Known for her contemporary-styled female nudes and self-portraits, Morgan produces independent exhibition works as well as commissioned works for various publications.

Working primarily with the human figure means that Morgan frequently utilizes photographic references. I can imagine the artist sitting at the desk space pictured above and adding detail to the painting on the easel, while looking carefully at photos from different angles.

The surface of the table in the photo is delightfully messy, lending a frantic sense of artistic creation and experimentation to a space that seems almost cramped and slightly dim from the image. It seems as though Morgan tends to work on a relatively small scale, so she may not need an expansive space in which to complete the work.

Morgan’s recent works have involved sanding, glazing or otherwise interfering with the surface of a portrait painted on canvas, creating an interesting aesthetic where a traditional, photo-realistic portrait is intertwined with abstract signifiers and symbols. The messy nature of sanding and glazing probably means that the studio includes another area where one might need to wear a dust mask due to particles in the air.

Stylistically, Morgan’s works remind me of other illustrative figure painters like Hannah Yata or Soey Milk. In many of her portraits, the subject stares directly out of the picture plane at the viewer, creating a sense of intensity and connection.

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