Barry McGlashan | Between the Dream and Waking | The Scottish Gallery | November 2021

Barry McGlashan

between the dream and waking

Barry McGlashan

between the dream and waking 28 October – 27 November 2021

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Foreword

Night Music (detail), 2021, oil on panel, 14 x 12 cm (cat. 55)

In November 2021 we present Between The Dream And Waking, Barry McGlashan’s fourth major exhibition at The Scottish Gallery. Lockdown restrictions confined McGlashan to his studio in Aberdeen, rather than enjoying his usual research trips to gather subject matter. Ever the optimist McGlashan did not see this as a catastrophe, instead using it as an opportunity to evolve and adapt his studio practice. By revisiting his own recollections of travel and by delving deeper into history, literature and film, new visual territories were discovered combining memories of personal experience with contextual imagery. The outcome is a considerable new body of work which explores the intangible place between the real and imagined.

There was another directional shift in the way McGlashan approached this body of work. His followers will remember complex compositional narratives, each painting a perfectly orchestrated stage set of an unfolding story. Whilst the narrative element in McGlashan’s new work remains important, it is no longer the driving element. Instead he has sought to allow and even encourage the accidental into his practice, and in his own words ‘leave the door open’ to intuitive surprises throughout the painting process. To encourage the spontaneous he has often used his old blotting papers as the starting point for new paintings. These shadow images, pasted onto the picture surface, offer McGlashan a springboard into the creative process. Often the imprint is completely obliterated during painting but sometimes elements are left, a ghostly reminder of the painting’s origin. McGlashan has tasked himself with finding truth in the accidental, and we are grateful to be allowed to join him on his journey.

Tommy Zyw, Director September 2021

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Barry McGlashan in his studio

Between the Dream and Waking

Each painting in this exhibition is its own object, arrived at by a process of making in which I create an environment of making and thinking which can encourage the accidental. Very little is prescribed, I like to keep the paintings active by allowing more to ‘come in’ as I think of it. In this way, the paintings evolve from one to the next and new territories are encountered. The work explores that place between the real and imagined, using references gleaned from personal experience: often recollections of travel, the memories of which have taken on a new importance recently. But imagery is also discovered in literature, historical events and often film – or perhaps more appropriately, the meanings I find within that relatable imagery.

“You can’t put the image there in the beginning because you simply haven’t experienced anything of it.

That’s the reason the thing is worked until it finds this special place. What is this place?” – Philip Guston This exhibition came from a sense of restlessness.

In recent times, my usual practices and processes of working simply haven’t been possible. An absence of travel for sources of information have given way to journeys of the imagination. Rather than this being a hinderance, it has allowed my thinking to travel further and has led to a deeper connection with my work. That absence created a desire for the true ‘object’.

A painting is many things at once. It’s often illusory to some extent: a flat surface which can describe form and spatial depth. It can be a ‘picture’, but at the same time it is also an object; a made thing, something you can hold, feel in your hand. That material nature of the painting has found a more central position in my thinking, and this has never been so important to me.

I am trying to evoke a feeling in the viewer which is their own rather than making a statement for them to follow. I think we find a deeper, shared truth that way.

I hope the imagery I find in the studio (and with my process, it is now very much like ‘finding’) creates relatable moments which are something akin to distant memories or even something dreamt.

Over years of work in the studio, I have accumulated many ghosts. These are pieces of paper, stained and marked through the process of painting. I’ll often use a piece of paper as a blotter, to remove excess paint from the surface of another painting, so I am left with this relic of something other, like a memory. They are very beautiful in their own way – ghostly and thin, whispering forms that suggest something new. I decided to use these as a starting point for some of the paintings – they are bonded to panel, sealed, and then worked over. Those feint images may remain to the end or may be completely obscured, but the point for me is that this feels like starting in the middle. It’s very liberating.

Those half-remembered moments from the place between the dream and waking.

Barry McGlashan, September 2021

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cat. 1 | Flowers, 2021, oil, paper and varnish on panel, 21.5 x 30 cm

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cat. 2 | Roses, 2021, oil on panel, 28 x 22.5 cm

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cat. 3 | Black Hat, 2021, oil, paper and varnish on panel, 30 x 21.5 cm

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cat. 4 | Summer Night, 2021, oil on canvas laid over panel, 30 x 21.5 cm

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cat. 5 | Midnight Sun, 2020, oil and oil pastel on paper, 57 x 76 cm

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cat. 6 | Moonshiner, 2020, oil and graphite on panel, 34 x 30.5 cm

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cat. 7 | The Wicked Flee i, 2021, oil, paper and varnish on panel, 21.5 x 30 cm

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cat. 8 | Going to a Town, 2021, oil, paper and varnish on panel, 21.5 x 30 cm

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cat. 9 | The Wicked Flee ii, 2021, oil, paper and varnish on panel, 30 x 21.5 cm

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cat. 10 | Scottish Castaway, 2021, oil on panel, 20 x 20 cm

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cat. 11 | Burning Boat ii, 2021, oil and pastel on paper, 14 x 20 cm cat. 12 | All in a Hot and Copper Sky, 2020, oil on paper, 23 x 15 cm

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cat. 13 | Bergs, 2021, oil on canvas laid over panel, 30.5 x 22 cm

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cat. 14 | The Sun in a Mist, 2020, oil on paper laid on panel, 23 x 31 cm

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cat. 15 | The Boiling Sea, 2020, graphite on paper, 21 x 29.5 cm

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cat. 16 | Eat Him by his Own Light, 2021, oil and wax on canvas, 100 x 130 cm

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cat. 17 | Prophecy, 2021, oil, paper and varnish on panel, 21.5 x 30 cm

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cat. 18 | Ambergris, 2021, oil and wax on canvas laid on panel, 91.5 x 71 cm

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cat. 19 | The Schrimshander, 2021, oil on canvas, 100 x 130 cm

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cat. 20 | Hobo’s Lullaby, 2021, oil, paper and varnish on panel, 21.5 x 30 cm

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cat. 21 | Yellow Medicine County, 2021, oil, paper and varnish on panel, 21.5 x 30 cm

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cat. 22 | Until the Floods Come, and This is a Lake, 2020, oil on paper laid on panel, 23 x 15.5 cm

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cat. 23 | Tree by Pale Water, 2021, oil, paper and varnish on panel, 30 x 21.5 cm

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cat. 24 | Hyperborea i, 2021, oil, paper and varnish on panel, 30 x 21.5 cm

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cat. 25 | Hyperborea ii, 2021, oil, paper and varnish on panel, 21.5 x 30 cm

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cat. 26 | Pale Rider, 2021, oil and wax on canvas, 120 x 150 cm

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cat. 27 | Insomnia, 2020, oil on panel, 30 x 21 cm

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cat. 28 | Northern Romantic, 2020, oil and pastel on paper, 57 x 76 cm

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cat. 29 | Prospector, 2021, oil on panel, 30 x 25.5 cm

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cat. 30 | Green Moon and Tree, 2021, oil on panel, 13 x 12 cm cat. 31| Night on the Mountain, 2020, oil on panel, 26.5 x 17.5 cm

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cat. 32 | Eternity, 2021, oil on canvas, 120 x 150 cm

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cat. 33 | The Eternal, 2021, oil, paper and varnish on panel, 30 x 21.5 cm

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cat. 34 | Insomniac, 2021, oil, paper and varnish on panel, 30 x 21.5 cm

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cat. 35 | Painting in Defence of Migrants, 2021, oil on panel, 16.5 x 14.5 cm cat. 36 | Lore, 2020, oil on panel, 15 x 20.5 cm

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cat. 37 | Stalker, 2021, oil, paper and varnish on panel, 30 x 21.5 cm

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cat. 38 | Low Beams, 2021, oil, paper and varnish on panel, 21.5 x 30 cm

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cat. 39 | First Light, 2021, oil, paper and varnish on panel, 30 x 21.5 cm

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cat. 40 | All Days are Nights, and Nights Bright Days i, 2021, oil on canvas, 170 x 140 cm

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cat. 41 | All Days are Nights, and Nights Bright Days ii, 2021, oil on canvas, 170 x 140 cm

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cat. 42 | Wake, 2020, oil on paper, 31 x 23 cm

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cat. 43 | Hobo Poet, 2021, oil on panel, 25 x 30 cm

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cat. 44 | Northern Reach (Night), 2021, oil on canvas laid on panel, 20.5 x 19 cm

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cat. 45 | The Blue Hour, 2021, oil on canvas, 30 x 26 cm

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cat. 46 | Sodium, 2021, oil on panel, 30 x 40.5 cm

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cat. 47 | Girl at The Shore, 2021, oil on canvas, 30.5 x 25.5 cm

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cat. 48 | Grey Studio (Study), 2020, oil, varnish and oil pastel on card, 21.5 x 31 cm

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cat. 49 | Veil, 2021, oil, paper and varnish on panel, 21.5 x 30 cm

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cat. 50 | Pale Night, 2021, oil on canvas, 120 x 90.5 cm

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cat. 51 | Northern Reach (Day), 2021, oil on paper laid on panel, 21.5 x 18 cm cat. 52 | Trick of the Light, 2021, oil on panel, 15 x 12.5 cm

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cat. 53 | The Green Ray, 2021, oil on canvas laid on panel, 40.5 x 30.5 cm

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cat. 54 | Planthunter, 2020, oil on panel, 28 x 33 cm

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cat. 55 | Night Music, 2021, oil on panel, 14 x 12 cm

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cat. 56 | Sierra, 2021, oil on panel, 30 x 38 cm

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cat. 57 | Drift, 2020, oil on paper, 20 x 25 cm

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cat. 58 | Dogs, 2021, oil on panel, 16 x 28 cm

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cat. 59 | Burning Boat i, 2020, oil and oil pastel on paper, 14 x 20 cm

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cat. 60 | Drifter, 2021, oil, paper and varnish on panel, 30 x 21.5 cm

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cat. 61 | Hobo as Heroic Figure, 2021, oil, paper and varnish on panel, 30 x 21.5 cm

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cat. 62 | House by Blue Mountain, 2021, oil on panel, 15 x 25.5cm

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cat. 63 | Walk in Stars, 2021, oil on panel, 13.5 x 11 cm cat. 64 | Following Light, 2021, oil on panel, 23 x 15.5 cm

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cat. 65 | Islands, 2021, oil on panel, 30 x 40.5 cm

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cat. 66 | Ahab has his Humanities, 2021, oil on panel, 40.5 x 30.5 cm

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cat. 67 | Eclipse, 2021, oil on panel, 21.5 x 15 cm

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cat. 68 | Scapa, 2021, oil and resin on panel, 30.5 x 37.5 cm

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Barry James McGlashan

Born 25th June 1974 (Aberdeen, Scotland)

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2021 Between The Dream And Waking, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh 2020 Natura Naturata, John Martin Gallery, London 2018 Line of Beauty, John Martin Gallery, London 2017 The Glass Mountain, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh 2016 Mudlarks And Connoisseurs, John Martin Gallery, London 2014 The Burning Heart, John Martin Gallery, London The Sunken Dream, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh 2013 That Howling Infinite, John Martin Gallery, London 2012 Quiet Please, Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh 2011 The Secrets, John Martin Gallery, London 2010 The Whiteness of The Whale, Foyer Gallery, Aberdeen 2009 Somewhere in The North, The Rendezvous Gallery, Aberdeen Wonderland, John Martin Gallery, London 2007 New Ways to See the World, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh Way Out West, John Martin Gallery, London 2006 The Big Country, The Rendezvous Gallery, Aberdeen 2005 The Great Adventure, John Martin Gallery, London

ART EDUCATION 1992-1996 BA Hons (First Class)

Grays School of Art, Aberdeen

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2004 Between Journeys, The Rendezvous Gallery, Aberdeen There and Back Again, Roger Billcliffe Fine Art, Glasgow 2003 Recent Works, The Rendezvous Gallery, Aberdeen 2001 Small Town, The Alastair Salvesen Scholarship, The Royal Scottish Academy / The Fettes Gallery, Fettes College, Edinburgh 2000 New Lands, The Rendezvous Gallery, Aberdeen 1999 Works on Paper, Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh 1998 New Works, The Rendezvous Gallery, Aberdeen

SELECTED COLLECTIONS Aberdeen Art Gallery Aberdeen Asset Management (UK & New York) Aberdeen City Council Alastair Salvesen Trust, Edinburgh BP Grampian Hospitals Art Trust MacAllan Distilleries Paintings in Hospitals (Edinburgh) Professional Footballers Association, Manchester The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen The Royal Bank of Scotland, Edinburgh The Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh The Scottish Society, New York, USA W Gordon Smith & Jay Gordonsmith Collection Walter Scott Global Investment Management, Edinburgh

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Published by The Scottish Gallery for the exhibition Barry McGlashan: Between The Dream And Waking held at 16 Dundas Street from 28 October t0 27 November 2021 Exhibition can be viewed online at: www.scottish-gallery.co.uk/barrymcglashan isbn 978 1 912900 43 5 Artworks © Barry McGlashan 2o21 Text © the authors 2021 Catalogue © The Scottish Gallery 2021 All rights reserved Photography by Stuart Johnstone Designed by James Brook, www.jamesbrook.net Printed by J Thomson Colour Printers

front cover image: The Blue Hour (detail), 2021, oil on canvas, 30 x 26 cm (cat. 45) back cover image: Wake (detail), 2020, oil on paper, 31 x 23 cm (cat. 42) inside cover image: Veil (detail), 2021, oil, paper and varnish on panel, 21.5 x 30 cm (cat. 49)