The garden at Shepherd’s Rest

In 2010 Morgan and her partner, furniture designer Justin Hermes, purchased an 1850s stone shepherd's cottage on a small hilltop acreage in the Adelaide Hills. Despite its being in a partly dilapidated state, with caved-in floors and resident bats, the romantic potential of the place was undeniable.  More importantly, it had excellent soil for gardening and room for a studio.  The past 13 years have been spent slowly renovating the buildings, planting countless trees, and creating a garden from scratch on the windy hillside.  Tucked into the hillside, facing west, the garden is at its most beautiful in the late afternoon and evening as the sun sets over the valley below. Morgan has chosen a plant palette of grasses, umbellifers and arching perennials to capture the golden light and render visible the ever-present breezes.

The parallels between the processes of painting and the workings of the natural world, as experienced through the seasons in the garden, continue to be Morgan's greatest source of inspiration.  Her studio is in a converted hay shed on the property where she can be closest to her natural subjects.

The garden, cottage and studio have featured in numerous magazines, programmes, publications and online interviews, including Country Style, Spaces, Rural Australian Homes by Leta Keens, and ABC television’s beloved Gardening Australia. Two recent books published by Thames & Hudson, Artists at Home by Karina Dias Pires, and Adelaide Hills Gardens by Christine McCabe, provide beautiful profiles of Morgan and her work.