Lillie Morris, a native of Augusta, is well known for her acrylic paintings, collages, and mixed-media works. She specializes in abstract art that reveals a love of texture and color and an instinct for experimentation. Her work is richly layered, and she employs a vocabulary of gestural marks and linear elements that is uniquely hers in an attempt to convey the emotional impact of her sources of inspiration—the landscape, waterways, music, poetry, the rich history of Georgia’s Piedmont region, or deep personal experiences. She enjoys creating visually stimulating images that leave the subject open to the viewer’s interpretation. The short walk from her house to her studio in Appling, Georgia, is filled with the sights and sounds of nature, taking her alongside a creek and a pond and across a pasture where goats graze in the distance.

Water Works consists of abstract paintings that represent her response to and reverence for the waterways of the Central Savannah River Area. In Morris’s mind, art and the environment are inextricably intertwined. “Rather than a literal interpretation of water, the series was intended to evoke the feeling of being in, or underwater . . . to somehow depict its power and the mystery of what might lie beneath the surface,” said Morris. 

Her hope is that these water-inspired works will encourage individuals to be more appreciative of our waterways and more committed to keeping them clean, navigable, and healthy.