Tripwire Reviews Documentary On Renowned Scottish Landscape Painter Eye Of The Storm

Stormy Approach

Tripwire’s editor-in-chief Joel Meadows just took a look at director Anthony Baxter’s documentary about Scottish landscape painter James Morrison, Eye Of The Storm…

Eye Of The Storm
Director: Anthony Baxter

James Morrison was an acclaimed  Scottish portrait painter who died just in 2020 and this documentary is a touching and interesting look at his career.

With his eyesight failing him, artist Morrison at the age of 87 has to contend with continuing to create paintings despite his physical problems.

The documentary gives us a potted history of his life and his career. It also documents his time studying at the world-famous Glasgow School of Art as well as including screentime that looks at his stint teaching at Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art up in Dundee as well as his time visiting the Arctic as an artist to record its amazing sights in paint.

Morrison was a very significant painter whose landscapes really captured the wildness of the places he painted and this documentary tells his story with empathy and emotion. For many years, Morrison would paint his pieces outside in the elements surrounded by his subjects and this partly explains the power and impact of his paintings. The documentary also talks about how he saw himself as part of a landscape tradition with artists like Claude Lorrain, Jean-François Millet, and Scotland’s own Horatio McCulloch.

His passing in 2020 was a sad one but he leaves a huge legacy as a painter and this documentary will hopefully bring extra attention to his body of work.

Director Baxter has assembled a thoughtful and intelligent documentary interspersed with inventive animation by Scottish animator Catriona Black which recreates key moments in his life.

Morrison is very well-regarded in his native Scotland but he does deserve wider recognition and hopefully this documentary will assist in that.

Eye Of The Storm is a fascinating account of a British artistic genius, offering the viewer a glimpse into his working practices and his approach to his art.

Eye Of The Storm is available now on DVD and Itunes, Amazon and Google