Summer 2026

catalogue an artist’s creations. From the mid- 1920s through the mid-1940s Morgan’s eclectic approach, which entertained her contempo- raries by mixing radically dissimilar styles of art in a single exhibition, ranged from tonalism and an unpretentious realism to techniques similar to the European impressionists and post- impressionists. She never adopted the tenants of abstract or non-objective art, finding them too deceptive. An additional hindrance to any assessment is that her work, with only a few exceptions, is never dated and the same paint- ings at different exhibits may carry different titles. Consequently, the surviving narrative on the “private” Morgan is primarily a recitation of the rare interviews with critics at her exhibitions or in her Carmel studio. Much of Morgan’s early fame rested on her embrace of subjects along the rocky coast, which included the “weirdness” of Carmel’s trees, deformed by the relentless forces of wind and rain. These renderings were not snapshots of cruelty and decay, but psychological studies of survivors—spirits tranquilly holding steadfast to the principle of sustaining life. Her paintings were never minor variations of a single theme, like the clinical observations of mutating light in Monet’s haystacks. Nor did she attempt to establish, by the repetition of subject matter, an iconography of arboreal life. Instead, they were self-portraits of her own ever-changing moods, rendered in a broad vocabulary of earth tones or bright colors and in perspectives that ranged from peaceful to unsettling. She was an authen- tic “impressionist.” Throughout her entire career she refused to discuss her creative process, implying that it was a mystical experience. It was the pronounced surreal quality of some of her cypress trees that led George Bellows and Courtesy of Lila and James Thorsen Collection Courtesy of Jean and Roy Scharer Collection C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • S U M M E R 2 0 2 6 171 (Above) “Wind-Swept Pines—Moss Beach Dunes,” an 18.75 x 13.75 inch watercolor and gouache, from the col- lection of Lila and James Thorsen. (Below) “Fisherman’s Wharf— Monterey,” a 12 x 16 inch oil, from the collection of Jean and Roy Scharer.