Huge canvases stand on large easels

A thick mound of oil paint, built up over the years, stands like a stalagmite. Underneath lies the artists Rosetta Stone V3 original palette; on top are dozens of empty oil paint tubes. A collector once tried to buy this impressive relic, but Morrison waved him away. Displayed in a gallery of modern art, it would be an interesting installation piece. Instead it stands as testimony to the frenzy of painting that is Morrisons life: a love affair with colour and landscape and a type of creation that, for him, is an act of devotion to another, higher creator.For me, its all about one day doing that great piece of art, the best that I have ever done. Thats what makes me do this, and it is very elusive, he says.Reluctantly, Morrison has had to temper his compulsion to paint. In 2007, I was stressed out. I was doing too much. I was churning out about 1500 works a year, from tiny ones to really big ones. He has halved that output now. I was physically stressed out. The painting takes over. I wasnt well: my blood pressure was sky high. You just cannot stop, he recalls, shaking his head. I have always been like that: when I was teaching, and had my six weeks off in the summer, I should have been out with the boys, playing football. But I wasnt. I was in my corner of the house, painting. I have always been obsessive about it. [The artist] Joan Eardley said painting is like breathing, and thats how I have always felt about it. It is in your psyche. Is painting an escape, a way of temporarily avoiding real life? No, he says quickly. Then he concedes: Maybe it is an escape. But Im not really one to escape from anything. Escapism means you are trying to escape from something. Im not. Or maybe I am. The studio contains a large pile of documents, the list of entries to the Jolomo Award. A shortlist of potential winners Rosetta Stone German will be announced at the end of this month. Morrison established the award, not, as some believe, as a kind of anti-Turner Prize . Morrison actually appreciates some conceptual art, having taught it while teaching art at Lochgilphead High School, and marked it when he was an art assessor for the Scottish Examination Board for 20 years. His middle son, Peter (now 35), exhibited his own paintings at the GSA alongside much conceptual work.No, says Morrison, the award is not anti-anything. Rather it is for landscape painting, a way of encouraging the continuance of a tradition he cherishes. I felt that in the art colleges, painting in general was dying and landscape painting was nowhere to be seen, he says. The Glasgow Boys, the Colourists, Joan Eardley that lineage produced brilliant work. For that to stop, to die out, would be sacrilege to me. He traces his love of the countryside to his childhood: there were frequent holidays to his familys hut in Carbeth, and stories from his fathers family croft in north Harris. Morrison now has a house and studio on Mull. Im a painter, and I love the land, he says. We have been here in Tayvallich for 40 years and I don’t get tired of the views. Even on a day like this, I love the rain, I love a storm, I love the snow. Those things resonate with me. In the New Years honours list, Morrison received an OBE for his devotion to art and to the vocation of caring (he and Maureen are patrons of the Princess Royal Trust for Carers). He says he was gobsmacked by the award and the publicity that came with it. One interviewer asked whether it would change his life.Of course not. For me, health and family are the most important things, Rosetta Stone Software he says. After that comes God. Perhaps God should come first, but if you havent got health then you have had it. God is up there, though. Happiness should come from that, if happiness is the main thing in life. He asks if I have seen Shadowlands, the movie starring Anthony Hopkins about the tragic later life of the overtly Christian writer CS Lewis. I always like that film, he says. There is that bit where CS Lewis says he doesn’t know whether God means us to be happy. Its an interesting thought. Morrison points his finger at his beloved Argyll, its beauty drenched in rain beyond the glass wall of the studio.Happiness is kind of elusive, he says. Youre probably thinking, Imagine living in a place like this, where it rains all the time. But that goes, the sun comes out, the blue sky comes and it is stunning. Happiness and pain go together.