Current Works 2026
Originals
.
The art of looking slowly
An immersive body of new original works by Kate Morgan RI reveals a breathtaking collection of monumental mixed media universes – ranging from the dense velvet like flora of Crimson Reverie to the intricately structured human inhabited classical landscapes of Pathways to Pegasus. The fundamental aim of these sprawling, meticulous paintings is to mount a quiet deliberate rebellion against the relentless digital distractions and material anxieties of modern life by introducing unashamed beauty back into today’s current landscape that has grown claustrophobically obsessed with mirroring human ugliness, distress and the worst traits of digital technology that encourage us to look inwards.
By defiantly and deliberately using the medium of watercolour and pastel into unapologetic, bold, pristine, impossible ecosystems where global wildlife, handcrafted architecture and human entities exist in states of absolute harmonious absorption, Morgan crafts an enduring sanctuary of physical patience; it is a profound visual intervention that refuses to shock or alienate, choosing instead to use an alluring, maximalist aesthetic to heal the fractured modern eye, pull humanity out of the prison of the self, and prove that our hands are capable of leaving a footprint of harmony rather than a scar behind us.
About the artist
Kate Morgan
Award winning UK artist Kate Morgan, MA, RI’s paintings feel less like traditional landscapes and more like portals into imagined ecosystems — always inspired by the natural world.
Deeply captivated by the tension between observation and fantasy, Kate has studied the natural world with an almost scientific precision, yet transforms it into something dreamlike, emotional and bordering on the mythic.
At the heart of her art is an enduring fascination with biodiversity. Her paintings overflow with tropical foliage, hidden insects, amphibians, birds and endangered species, all rendered with extraordinary technical detail.
Working in watercolour at an unusually ambitious scale, Morgan combines meticulous realism with imaginative composition. Her paintings are not depictions of specific locations but invented environments, bringing together species and botanical forms from across the globe into worlds that feel both fantastical and entirely believable.
Each work is designed to reward prolonged looking. Hidden relationships emerge between animals, insects and plants, while pathways, waterways and architectural structures guide the eye through compositions that reveal new discoveries over time. This balance between abundance and order has become a defining characteristic of her practice.
At a time when conversations around biodiversity and our relationship with nature are increasingly urgent, Morgan's paintings offer an alternative vision—one of coexistence, resilience and quiet optimism. Rather than documenting environmental loss, they celebrate the extraordinary richness of life and invite viewers to slow down, observe and reconnect with the natural world.
Her work has been exhibited widely and is held in private collections internationally. Through an evolving series of increasingly ambitious paintings, Morgan continues to develop immersive imagined ecosystems that blur the boundaries between observation, memory and imagination.
“I make paintings that cannot be understood in a single glance. At first, the eye encounters a field of colour and detail with nowhere obvious to settle; only through lingering do individual lives, relationships and pathways begin to emerge. At the heart of my work is this movement from looking quickly to seeing deeply—from the noise of first perception towards a more attentive encounter with a world beyond ourselves.”
— Kate Morgan
“My earlier paintings removed the human footprint entirely, giving the whole visual field to other forms of life. More recently, paths, gardens, architecture and objects made by hand have entered these imagined ecosystems—not as proof that harmony is possible, but as a question about the kind of presence humanity might choose to have. I am interested in whether human imagination can create places of hospitality: structures that make room for beauty, abundance and lives beyond our own.”
— Kate Morgan
“The way I make the work is inseparable from what it asks of the viewer. I build each painting slowly, through drawing and repeated layers of watercolour, gouache and pastel, until the paper becomes a dense record of sustained attention. At a time when images are generated and discarded almost instantly, I want the presence of the human hand—and the time held within it—to remain unmistakable.”
— Kate Morgan RI
2026
Architecture of Imagination
I have always been fascinated by painting's ability to create places that exist somewhere between reality and imagination—worlds that invite us to slow down, look more deeply and experience the living world with a renewed sense of wonder. This new collection marks an exciting evolution in that ongoing journey. While my earlier paintings immersed viewers in untamed jungles and underwater worlds, these new works open another door, exploring the extraordinary possibilities that emerge when nature and human creativity exist in harmony.
I want these worlds to unfold slowly, rewarding curiosity with every return.
In a culture that encourages us to consume images in seconds, I hope these paintings ask something different of us. Not ten seconds, but ten minutes. Longer, if possible. The longer we remain with something, the more it reveals. I want looking itself to become an act of exploration, where patience is rewarded, attention is celebrated, and curiosity opens the door to countless discoveries that might otherwise remain unseen.