This page features artists who have benefited through the Arts & Disability Forum.  Different artists will be featured at different times so we encourage you to visit often.

Tommy Morrison

Tommy began painting in 1994, more by accident than design, when a friend showed him how to use oil paints.  That was him firmly on his way and he stayed with oil painting until 2000 when he was given a watercolour book, changing his concept of what painting could do.

Nature is Tommy’s source of inspiration.  He says, “I love to paint skies, trees and old ruins in particular.  I also use nature as a guide in my abstract art as well as nature’s materials such as sand and salt.  These are elements that just like nature itself cannot be controlled and have to be let go to get on with it themselves.  I find watercolour painting invigorating and it has since become a lifeline to help escape the confines of my illness.  I actually enjoy the challenge of a blank sheet of paper and being able to produce a piece of artwork simply from water, brushes and paints.  It is always exciting and nerve-racking putting that first wash on the sheet, then having to stand back and let the paint do its own thing, every wash is an adventure.”

Tommy was introduced to the Arts & Disability Forum in 2003 and in 2005 he secured an Arts & Disability Award Ireland.  Tommy says, “The award provided me with the freedom to simply go and express myself and through this came my abstract art which has broadened my horizons quite considerably.”

Tommy’s future aim is to incorporate the use of salt and sand into his more “traditional” style of painting.  He comments that, “Much experimentation awaits and I look forward to seeing what the future brings by trying to merge the different aspects of my painting styles.  The best thing about being an artist is that there is always another challenge waiting just around the corner, just as nature itself is always around us.”

Tommy has paintings in private collections in the USA, Canada, Australia, England and here in Northern Ireland.

His ‘Past and Present’ exhibition will feature in the ADF Gallery (109-113 Royal Avenue, Belfast) from Thursday 8 – Thursday 29 November 2007. Gallery opening hours are Tuesday-Thursday 11am-4pm, Friday 11am-2pm and Saturday 11am-3pm.