Father-and-son artists Greg Mort and Jon Mort are often asked about their relationship as artists and how one has influenced the other. Jon says that growing up in a creative household there was never any pressure to become an artist and that allowed him to come to his career on his own terms. Greg adds that he wasn’t his son’s teacher as many would assume, which has allowed their relationship as separate artists to flourish in similar yet disparate ways.
Greg Mort, Marbled Apples, oil on panel, 28 x 50"“It’s kind of fascinating having lived through it,” Greg explains. “The way Jon approaches a piece—there are some similarities in subject matter—but the way he approaches his concept is so different than I do. You’d see there is no connection in the notion of process.”
The elder Mort works in oils and watercolors, while Jon’s pieces are done in colored pencil and tend to be a bit more exacting than his father’s work. When they come together, the pair discusses art and often a new theme for their regular exhibitions at Somerville Manning Gallery in Greenville, Delaware. This year’s show, taking place November 22 through December 21, is called Panoramas and focuses on the bigger picture—taking in all the views of the world through a larger lens.
Greg Mort, Parallels, watercolor, 32 x 32"“We try to come up with titles that are a framework; where we think the actual creative process and rendering might go,” says Jon, “but in this case we wanted a word that was something we could interpret, especially because it’s a joint project, and be creative in those bounds laid out in the beginning of the process.”
Jon says the direction he took was using the idea of panorama as a still life rather than the typical landscape, and digging into the analogies of what the landscape is and how it has changed. “The body of work began to have an environmental meaning. A lot of the more pressing issues are centered on environmental preservation—the idea of what’s left when these landscapes are destroyed, whether it’s for industrial or living space purposes,” he says. “When all you have is the memory or rendering of those things, where does that leave us in terms of experience?”
Jon Mort, The Human Voice, colored pencil on Bristol board, 16 x 10"With that, many of Jon’s pieces have book covers that feature mountains and trees in them harkening to the landscape itself. The Human Voice includes an article from a book about laying down telegraphic cable beneath the ocean floor while seashells sit on a wooden block in front of it. Another piece, Intrusion, shows a plastic gear in the midst of the natural work—an item that will remain far longer than the flowers, rocks and butterflies that surround it in the composition.
Greg says the idea of panorama also is interesting because it plays off the father-and-son dynamic. “A lot of what has evolved in my mind is a combined vision that makes it more panoramic through my son’s development,” he explains. “As time has gone by we have played off each other’s imagery and philosophy of what art is, and also the world of science that we appreciate so much and history.”
Jon Mort, Intrusion, colored pencil on Bristol board, 14 x 10"His painting Parallels puts a seashell on top of a slab of marble—joining two natural wonders, one cut to its shape, the other natural. “One of the reasons I use the motif of shells is it has one of the more beautiful figures in nature—that being the spiral,” Greg shares. “I think that nature has a way of revealing this beautiful harmony in a way that it takes scrutiny to it. ‘Parallels’ refers to the striations in the marble. A lot of things in nature do parallel each other in the way they’re constructed. There’s a beautiful repetition of harmony.” —
Somerville Manning Gallery Breck’s Mill, 2nd Floor • 101 Stone Block Row • Greenville, DE 19807 • (302) 652-0271 • www.somervillemanning.com
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