Margaret Morrison is an acclaimed American painter renowned for her masterful blend of realism and surrealism, creating vibrant, thought-provoking works that often incorporate figurative elements, still life, and dreamlike narratives.

Born in Utah in 1960, Morrison grew up as the youngest of six daughters and developed an early passion for art through extensive travels with her family, visiting major museums across Europe and Asia while based in the Philippines during her youth. She earned her M.F.A. in Drawing and Painting in 1988 from the University of Utah.

A longtime resident of Athens, Georgia, Morrison built a distinguished career as a tenured professor of drawing and painting at the Lamar Dodd School of Art at the University of Georgia, where she inspired generations of students until her recent retirement. Balancing her roles as an artist, educator, wife, mother, and grandmother, she has often drawn emotional depth from her personal life into her creative process.

Her paintings—characterized by bold colors, intricate details, and large-scale compositions—explore themes ranging from everyday objects elevated to monumental status (such as sugary confections in her "Larger than Life" series) to profound explorations of enlightenment, as seen in her "Paradigm Shift" series of oil paintings depicting stages from awakening to transcendence.

Morrison has been represented by Woodward Gallery in New York City since 1995, with numerous solo exhibitions there and elsewhere, including recent shows at the UGA Performing Arts Center, the Georgia Museum of Art, and the Lyndon House Arts Center in Athens. Her work has appeared in prestigious venues worldwide, such as the Yellowstone Art Museum, the Shelburne Museum of Art, the Petersen Automotive Museum, and institutions in New York and beyond. Notably, her painting "Cat’s Eyes" was selected for display in the U.S. Ambassador’s residence in Tel Aviv through the Art in Embassies program.

Her paintings have been featured alongside American masters, published in major art publications and the New York Times, and collected privately and publicly. Through her evocative, technically virtuosic canvases, Morrison invites viewers to reconsider the ordinary, the surreal, and the transformative power of perception. She continues to live and work in Athens, Georgia, drawing inspiration from her surroundings, travels (including frequent summers in Tuscany), and lifelong dedication to the art of painting.