Deborah Morrissey McGoff (1955-2022) was an exceptional painter, devoting herself to achieving technical mastery of the medium in a career spanning over forty years. Her enigmatic narrative landscapes merged traditional painting methods with contemporary and personal themes unique to her vision. Exquisitely executed, these paintings pay homage to artists who span centuries of landscape painting from the Italian Renaissance to the Hudson River School.

With her paintings, she emphasized our connection to nature through astute observations that captured the beauty and power of landscape as an emotional and dramatic messenger. Sanctuary pays tribute to Deborah’s extraordinary journey as a painter with a survey of her work over four decades documenting her admiration of landscape as a guiding force for her prolific output and continual evolution as an artist.

Deborah Morrissey-McGoff earned a bachelor of fine arts from the University of Cincinnati in 1977.  During her accomplished career as an artist, she developed an extensive exhibition history that included both regional and national venues.  A major exhibition of her paintings was presented at the Springfield Museum of Art, Springfield, Ohio in 1997.  She was the recipient of numerous grants and awards including an Ohio Arts Council Fellowship in 1991 and 1996, an Arts Midwest Fellowship in 1990, and a Summerfair Individual Artist Grant in 1984 and 1992.  Her paintings are represented in major private and corporate collections.

Artist Statement

There are many recurring themes throughout the history of art which I have tried to interpret in light of my own experience.  The paintings are invented spaces where I manipulate time and perspectives to accommodate my thoughts concerning a wide variety of subjects.  These “narrative landscapes” may include gardening, solitude, sanctuary, urban contrasted with rural life, Eden, or homage to an artist who has inspired me. They might also include references to something I am reading or a place I have visited.  I paint as my mind remembers or as you might experience a dream.  I strive to make the paintings a place where memory and experience are juxtaposed in order to create a new realm, while hopefully leaving them open enough to allow the viewer to bring their own life and imagination to viewing them.

My technical process has evolved in response to my interest in Italian panel paintings of the early Renaissance, certain American primitive painters who worked on wood, and my desire to express my feelings about tradition and contemporary life.  Initially, I was drawn to painting on wood because of the beauty and durability of its prepared surface. The preparation of the wood panels is time intensive. The panels must be glued to wooden supports and sealed from behind to prevent warping.  The painting surface, which closely resembles plaster, is applied using a traditional gesso recipe dating (with little variance) to the 13th century.  This too must be properly sealed with shellac and denatured alcohol before painting begins.  The surface is crucial to what I want to convey in the work.  I want the paintings to look old.  They are linked to a long tradition of technique by way of the surface preparation and the painting methods. However, this technical process must always be in balance with and complementary to the contemporary themes of the paintings.

Deborah Morrissey-McGoff