Rita Mor­ris, a native of North Louisiana and long-time Tex­an, is a west­ern artist who tru­ly appre­ci­ates the brave pio­neers who were instru­men­tal in tam­ing the ear­ly Amer­i­can fron­tier. Their way of life con­tin­ues to inspire and dri­ve her to cap­ture on can­vas the adven­tur­ous men and women — and the some­times threat­en­ing sit­u­a­tions they encoun­tered — as they tried to sur­vive in the beau­ti­ful, but often dan­ger­ous, coun­try they called home.

Rita’s inter­est in the Amer­i­can West began at an ear­ly age as she lis­tened to her Native Amer­i­can grand­moth­er telling fas­ci­nat­ing sto­ries about her child­hood. This strong influ­ence would lat­er give Rita the inspi­ra­tion and desire to paint this sub­ject mat­ter that still draws her inter­est more than any other.

Fea­tur­ing both impres­sion­is­tic and real­is­tic touch­es, Rita’s art uses col­or and a sense of move­ment with­in rus­tic land­scapes to por­tray the cow­boys, Native Amer­i­cans, pio­neer women, moun­tain men, buf­fa­lo, long­horns, and hors­es, that con­vey the dra­ma and romance of the ear­ly Amer­i­can West. “The peo­ple and events por­trayed in west­ern art are exam­ples of the Amer­i­can ‘Can-Do’ attitude—and it’s a sto­ry that demands to be told and shown,” she says. “Whether my cur­rent paint­ing is of cow­boys and their trusty hors­es out­run­ning an approach­ing storm, or a herd of long­horns work­ing their way down a steep hill­side, or maybe a mighty war­rior on his light­ning fast pony, I am always aware that God Who cre­at­ed all these things has giv­en me the oppor­tu­ni­ty to do what I love and I am so thankful!”

Rita Mor­ris is a Sig­na­ture Mem­ber of the Amer­i­can Plains Artists and has been a juried artist in their shows at the Muse­um of West­ern Art in Ker­rville, Texas, and the Annu­al Exhib­it and Sale at the Pearce Muse­um in Cor­si­cana Texas. Her work “But When She Dances” was fea­tured on the cov­er of “Leg­ends” mag­a­zine in Sal­a­do, Texas. Rita’s paint­ings have also been in the C. M. Rus­sell Show and Exhib­it in Great Falls, Mon­tana, for four years; the Nation­al Gree­ley Art Exhib­it in Gree­ley, Col­orado; the juried Amer­i­can Plains Artist Show in Lin­coln, Nebras­ka; and the Okla­homa Impres­sion­ism Exhib­it in Tul­sa. Oth­er shows in Texas include the juried Spir­it of Texas Art Show; The Bosque Art Clas­sic; The West­ern Asso­ciates Show and Sale; the Bra­zos Riv­er Invi­ta­tion­al West­ern Art Show, and sev­er­al years in The Par­ty at the Muse­um of West­ern Art in Ker­rville. Her “Dressed To Kill” was used in the video doc­u­men­tary, “Uncov­er­ing the Past” pro­duced by the Indi­ana Kanka­kee Val­ley His­tor­i­cal Society.

Build­ing on her 25 years as a west­ern artist, Rita con­tin­ues to cre­ate works that move and delight the view­er. Her work is proud­ly dis­played in gal­leries, cor­po­rate sur­round­ings, and pri­vate col­lec­tions across the Unit­ed States.

PERSONAL

Rita Mor­ris is a west­ern painter, work­ing pri­mar­i­ly in oils.  Born in Louisiana, in 1955, she cur­rent­ly lives and works in Tyler, Texas.  Her sub­ject mat­ter con­sists of fig­ures and scenes depict­ing west­ern life of the past and present, done in the style of impres­sion­is­tic realism.

EDUCATION
Rita has stud­ied under the following:

Andy Thomas
Craig Ten­nant
Mar­tin Grelle
Bruce Greene
Roy Ander­sen
Larce Hold­er

EXHIBITIONS
Okla­homa Impres­sion­ism — July, 2015
The Rus­sell Show and Exhi­bi­tion — March, 2015
Bra­zos Riv­er Invi­ta­tion­al — Jan­u­ary, 2015
Bosque Con­ser­va­to­ry Show and Sale — 2014
West­ern Asso­ciates Exhib­it and Sale — 2014
Spir­it of Texas Show and Sale — 2014
The Rus­sell Show and Exhi­bi­tion — 2013

COLLECTIONS
Pri­vate  Col­lec­tions through­out the U.S.
Cor­po­rate Col­lec­tions, Texas