Ewan McClure | Inside and Out

cat. 1 | Profile, 2007 oil on canvas laid on board, 34 x 26 cm

Contents left: Low Sun, Castle Street (detail), 2021 oil on linen laid on board, 74 x 122 cm (cat. 15)

A New Chapter by Tommy Zyw 5 Honest Painting by Ewan McClure 7 Drop Shadows 9 The Artists’ Town 21 Shadow Box 45 Into the Landscape 57 Veiled Light 69 Biography 78

A New Chapter Tommy Zyw The Scottish Gallery welcomes back Ewan McClure for his second major exhibition Inside and Out. Visiting Ewan in the grand setting of E. A. Hornel’s studio at Broughton House in Kirkcudbright was an unforgettable experience.

The studio, entered from a gallery level, is still lined with Hornel’s work in gilt frames. It now has McClure’s new paintings spread out beneath, against the studio walls too, the ancient room again redolent of new oil paint. The sense of history was immediate, of bearing witness to a special moment of two painters meeting and conversing across a chasm of time. Living and working in Kirkcudbright, Ewan feels the history of the place keenly; he enjoys the proximity and connection with Hornel, but it is perhaps Oppenheimer or Peploe with whom he feels a greater kinship. Whilst no artist can entirely avoid acknowledging his predecessors, McClure approaches the work without active art historical references; he is his own painter, and the driving force of his practice are his own powers of observation. His skill as a draughtsman, honed over many years, and his love and knowledge of the medium means the response to his subject is intuitive, applying the paint alla prima, the brushwork sweeping, luscious and confident.

Over the past two years McClure has dedicated more time to working in the landscape. Included in the show are scenes of Sweden, which he visits often, but the majority feature the townscape and countryside of Kirkcudbright.

His landscapes are not simply topographical recordings, but are personal interpretations of lived experience. His viewpoint is often unconventional, with paintings featuring the industry of the working harbour or drone’s eye views from the town’s famous Tolbooth. McClure has painted a new chapter in the artistic history of Kirkcudbright and, in this beguiling and original body of new work, refreshed the possibilities for transformation from a tube of oil paint and a flat, primed surface.

In the studio McClure focuses his energies on still life painting. These range from informal arrangements, capturing the effect of light and shadow, to complex compositions viewed through angled mirrors, playing with ideas of depth and illusion. Geometric compositional studies, conceived and lit to be understood as upright, rather than as bird’s-eye views. These works allow McClure to experiment, playfully and intellectually, and offer a foil in mood and subject to his outdoor painting.

left: Ewan McClure, Broughton House, Kirkcudbright, February 2022 5

Ewan McClure at work, Dumfries and Galloway, 2022.

Photograph by Alan McClure

Honest Painting Ewan McClure Working as Artist-in-Residence in Broughton House, I’m surrounded by E. A. Hornel’s formidable artistic presence. His oak-panelled gallery space is hung wall-to-wall with dappled, gilt-framed Galloway lassies and their exotic counterparts from Japan and Burma. I’m not entirely won over to Hornel’s late works, but as a respectful guest I’ve found plenty to admire in his example, particularly his tireless work ethic and his compositional rigour.

Unfinished paintings line the studio walls too, along with easels, artefacts and other trappings of its former inhabitant. Built for purpose, the studio’s spacious interior and bank of north-facing skylights provide conditions which encourage an artist to give of his best.

As does Kirkcudbright itself; it is a gift to a painter. The peaceful location, nestled on the Dee estuary, its sandstone spires, painted cottage stonework and ever-changing light. Of course, there are equally picturesque rivals elsewhere in rural Scotland, but through a succession of artistic champions – not least Peploe, or Hornel himself who served as a cultural magnet and host to fellow painters – Kirkcudbright has fully earned iconic status in Scottish Art. A place which has been depicted by great artists will afterwards be seen through their lens. Can Mont Saint-Victoire, or the Thames under fog, be seen unmarked by the visions of Cézanne or Whistler?

Closer to home The Harbour Cottage reflected on the Dee, or a panorama over the Tolbooth, have become well-charted pictorial territory; most notably, perhaps, in Charles Oppenheimer’s definitive portrayals. While other painters might choose to avoid subjects which have received the characteristic Oppenheimer treatment, I felt I would have been equally mad to ignore them, given their proximity to my doorstep. Instead, I approached the motifs without active reference to any previous depictions, my visual memory notwithstanding.

Beyond a friendly nod to certain vantage points, if there is one lesson from Oppenheimer that I try to keep in mind it is the secret of true colour relationships. They have the power to draw forth feelings from memory, triggering past experiences of time and place. It was at a recent retrospective of his work that I encountered two pieces which did just that – not only to me, but to my companion as well. Two people with entirely different life stories,

but with enough shared experience to be transported into the full-sensory evocation of a clear winter’s day, through touches of pigment on canvas.

Aspiring to a particular definition of ‘honest painting’ – selecting a subject and relaying it, colour by colour, in its essentials – predates my years in art college. And for all Grays School of Art’s valiant efforts to awaken me to alternatives, I always feared losing something vital and universal in the pursuit of a more idiosyncratic visual language. Sandy Fraser’s insistence on cool objectivity in the life-drawing class resonated more with me than Beth Fisher’s appeal for mood, emotion and finding a personal angle. However, as my technique evolves over time, partly in response to the remarkable eclecticism of Fraser’s own development, I notice my work embracing and synthesising both approaches, albeit at varying rates from genre to genre.

With landscape themes I feel a reluctance to rearrange the elements as found, instead taking more liberties with the brushwork towards a personal, unified impression. By contrast, the development of my still-life compositions is fully hands-on, building the arrangements until they are reading together as a coherent whole. At that point I render what I see quite faithfully, towards a realism that melds from a few paces back.

Of course, in neither case do I stray from my first love: direct perceptual painting. Even on my most experimental forays into optical distortion, the actual image-making remains observational painting, and single-point perspective realism at that. Not that I want to pretend that pictorial space was solved once-and-for-all in the 15th century, and is since unchallenged. I just recognise which of my creative boundaries I’m challenging, and where some continuity of vision feels necessary.

One last word on my ongoing lines of experimentation. They arise from simply wanting to see something done, and to indulge a pleasure in practical problem-solving that needn’t equate to artistic sophistication. They won’t compete with Postmodern trends in art, now embracing artificial intelligence to produce superhuman, hybrid wonders. Mine are strictly centred around the hand-made, and the human scale.

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Drop Shadows left: Collage (detail), 2021, oil, paper and linen on board, 82 x 67 cm (cat. 7)

These are put together as tabletop arrangements, viewed from above with an angled mirror. But they are conceived and lit to be understood as upright rather than as bird’s-eye views.

Most contain references to artists I admire, though I’m primarily using the art books as props – to define and occupy the shallow space and to play with the disconcerting illusion of unsupported mass.

Ewan McClure

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cat. 2 | Dawn, 2021, oil on linen laid on board, 91 x 81 cm 10

cat. 3 | Locked Allusion, 2021 oil on linen laid on board, 91 x 81 cm 12

cat. 4 | Core Values, Homage to Hunter and Serov, 2020 oil on linen laid on board, 60 x 85 cm 14

cat. 5 | Further Reading, Homage to Sickert, Morandi and Braque 2020, oil on linen laid on board, 60 x 85 cm 15

cat. 6 | Tondo, 2021, oil on linen laid on board, 112 x 112 cm 16

cat. 7 | Collage, 2021, oil, paper and linen on board, 82 x 67 cm 18

The Artists’ Town left: Winter Morning (detail), 2021, oil on linen laid on board, 41 x 61 cm (cat. 16)

The harbour town of Kirkcudbright has been a wellspring of Scottish art since the 1880s. Both as a home to its celebrated artist colony: E. A. Hornel, Jessie M. King, E. A. Taylor and their contemporaries, and as an inspiring summer retreat for their city-dwelling peers – the Glasgow Boys, Dorothy Johnstone and S. J. Peploe among them.

I was first drawn here by an opportunity to paint in Hornel’s chapel-like studio at Broughton House in 2007, and have been honoured to be its Artist-in-Residence since 2018.

But it’s only recently, and with this exhibition in mind, that I’ve finally turned my attention to the town itself as a subject for my own work.

Following Charles Oppenheimer’s footsteps up the stone stairs of the Old Courthouse tower, I’ve enjoyed the raised perspective over the ancient Tolbooth clocktower to the River Dee beyond, and swung a loaded brush over the whitewashed cottages and secluded gardens laid out below.

The town’s colourful streets and fabled quality of light offer timeless appeal, while the snaking lines of parked cars subdivide and reflect these surroundings as an unavoidable feature of our era.

Ewan McClure

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cat. 8 | Outside the Studio, Broughton House, 2021 oil on linen laid on board, 61 x 122 cm 22

cat. 9 | Cloud over St Mary’s, 2021 oil on linen laid on board, 155 x 93 cm 24

cat. 10 | Millburn Street, Kirkcudbright, 2022 oil on linen laid on board, 80 x 143 cm 26

cat. 11 | Setting Sun, 2022 oil on linen laid on board, 38 x 56 cm 28

cat. 12 | Scots Pine, 2022 oil on linen laid on board, 63 x 57 cm 29

cat. 13 | Kirkcudbright, Summer, 2021 oil on linen laid on board, 82 x 137 cm 30

cat. 14 | Lofty Vantage, Kirkcudbright, 2021 oil on linen laid on board, 89 x 121 cm 32

cat. 15 | Low Sun, Castle Street, 2021 oil on linen laid on board, 74 x 122 cm 34

cat. 16 | Winter Morning, 2021 oil on linen laid on board, 41 x 61 cm 36

cat. 17 | New Year, Kirkcudbright Parish, 2021 oil on linen laid on board, 48 x 80 cm 37

cat. 18 | King of the Castle, 2022 oil on linen laid on board, 60 x 60 cm 38

cat. 19 | Down the Lane, 2020 oil on linen laid on board, 81 x 61 cm 39

cat. 20 | Kirkcudbright, Contre-Jour, 2022 oil on canvas laid on board, 82 x 61 cm 40

cat. 21 | Harbour Cottage, 2021 oil on linen laid on board, 91 x 152 cm 42

Shadow Box left: The Wave (detail), 2021, oil on linen laid on board, 50 x 70 cm (cat. 28)

Rather than working in series, I find that I cycle through a range of evolving interests – chopping and changing to sustain my engagement.

Hopefully these loose, unplanned groupings serve to reinforce one another on the wall – the interior moods of these ‘Shadow Box’ studies acting as a foil for the outdoor space and light of the landscapes.

Indeed, I’ve only recently come to reflect upon the distinct, universal frames of experience that ‘indoors’ and ‘outdoors’ represent. This only dawned on me when I considered bundling the ‘Drop Shadows’ paintings with this set, as studio-based works. But in those, clues about the context are stripped away, and so a layer of felt meaning is absent.

Ewan McClure

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cat. 22 | Costume Department, 2019 oil on linen laid on board, 96 x 79 cm 46

cat. 23 | Owl on Perch, 2020 oil on linen laid on board, 52 x 42 cm 48

cat. 24 | Feathered Friends, 2020 oil on linen laid on board, 45 x 35 cm 49

cat. 25 | Halfway Up the Stair, 2022 oil on linen laid on board, 100 x 70 cm 50

cat. 26 | Still Life Gathering, 2020 oil on board, 250 x 90 cm 52

cat. 27 | Black Mirror, 2021 oil and linen laid on board, 28 x 28 cm 54

cat. 28 | The Wave, 2022 oil on linen laid on board, 50 x 70 cm 55

Into the Landscape left: Catching the Light (detail), 2022, oil on linen laid on board, 70 x 70 cm (cat. 33)

I owe it to travel restrictions that I have begun to give my bonny Galloway setting the attention it deserves – and for that, I’m grateful. Nevertheless, some recent trips further afield, including a blissful summer in rural Sweden, have begun to expand my horizons again.

Common to the larger canvases is a calculated attempt to convey the immersive presence of the scene, by force of scale.

Any such effect is a function of size in relation to the viewer, and therefore wouldn’t be expected to survive reproduction.

But whatever the size, my choice of brushwork tends to arise from the physical action of filling the space, and these gestures literally shape and inform what I subsequently perceive.

Curvilinear strokes on the canvas feed back into a sensed curvilinear undercurrent in the scene before me; or an angular or blocky attitude somehow brings those characteristics to the fore. I remain wary of special effects and mannerisms, but I’m starting to enjoy noticing this organic interplay.

Ewan McClure

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cat. 29 | High Summer, Sweden, 2021 oil on linen laid on board, 91 x 122 cm 58

cat. 30 | Winter Sun, 2021 oil on linen laid on board, 61 x 81 cm 60

cat. 31 | Rocky Shore, 2021 oil on linen laid on board, 73 x 122 cm 61

cat. 32 | Galloway Summer, 2021 oil on linen laid on board, 91 x 122 cm 62

cat. 33 | Catching the Light, 2022 oil on linen laid on board, 70 x 70 cm 64

cat. 34 | Cockenzie Harbour, 2022 oil on linen laid on board, 51 x 68 cm 65

cat. 35 | Local Dwellings, 2022 oil on linen laid on board, 58 x 87 cm 66

Veiled Light left: Evening Light, Back Lane (detail), 2021 oil and resin on puzzle panel, 40 x 60 cm (cat. 38)

These technical departures were prompted after looking at the world via a scratched, tarnished, antique mirror. Shifting my focus between the surface accidents and the softened image beyond led me to contemplate light, vision and memory.

I have experimented with various panel surfaces with patterns of defects, such as cork tiles and mosaics of puzzle pieces. It felt more valid to have the surface distortion arise from the structure of the work rather than as a spattered overpainting.

The paintings on open-weave polyester are an offshoot which are headed somewhere different. The mesh-like fabric of the painting has a translucency which allows for a design in the space behind to show through the matrix of holes. I’ve been intrigued to notice that this ghostly underlay creates an unexpected 3D effect as the mind makes a best guess to resolve the spatial ambiguity. (This illusion, relying on a mismatch between each eye’s view, is lost in reproduction.)

Ewan McClure

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cat. 36 | High Tide, Kirkcudbright, 2021 oil and resin on puzzle panel, 60 x 120 cm 70

cat. 37 | Refracted Memory, 2021 oil on cork, 30 x 30 cm 72

cat. 38 | Evening Light, Back Lane, 2021 oil and resin on puzzle panel, 40 x 60 cm 73

cat. 39 | Light and Moisture, 2022, oil on polyester mesh over mounted paper, 70 x 87 cm 74

cat. 40 | Visual Field, 2022, oil on polyester mesh over mounted paper, 40 x 60 cm 76

cat. 41 | Still Life with Immateriality, 2022 oil on polyester mesh over mounted paper, 34 x 47 cm 77

Ewan McClure Born 1975

2006 Enchanted Summer, Drumoak, Aberdeenshire 2005 A Galloway Gathering, Red Barn, Melkinthorpe, Cumbria 2003 Face to Face, Gracefield Art Centre, Dumfries 2001 Dinner Party – The Next Course, Riverside Gallery, Stonehaven 2001 June Exhibition, Galerie du Bois d’Amour, Pont Aven, Brittany 1999 and 2002 Gray’s Former Students’ Club, Aberdeen Art Gallery 1997 The Three Degrees, Battlehill Lodge, Huntly 1996 Selected Student Show, His Majesty’s Theatre, Aberdeen

art education

Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen (1997)

selected solo exhibitions 2022 2020 2019 2018 2012 2008 2001 2001 1999 1998 1996

Inside and Out, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh Solo, Kirkcudbright Art Galleries Gravity and Light, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh Artist and Muse, Castlegate House Gallery, Cockermouth Recent Work, Mill on the Fleet, Gatehouse An Encounter with Hornel, Broughton House, Kirkcudbright Housemates, Artists Gallery, Aberdeen Housemates, Orchardton House by Castle Douglas Windows, Artists Gallery, Aberdeen Northern Light, Italian Sunlight, Duff House, Banff Former Pupil, St. Machar Academy, Aberdeen

selected scholarships and awards

2018/2019 Broughton House, Artist in Residence, Kirkcudbright 2017 Scottish Portrait Award Commendation 2017 2013 Sky Arts Portrait Artist of the Year, Finalist 2008 Glasgow Art Club Fellowship Award 1999 Artists’ Pad Painting Prize 1997 Deveron Arts, Artist in Residence, Huntly 1997, 1998 and 2000 Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant (Montreal)

selected group exhibitions 2013 2013 2011 2011 2011 2010 2010 2009 2007 2007 2006

selected collections

Sky Arts Portrait Artist Finalists, National Portrait Gallery, London BP Portrait Award, National Portrait Gallery, London Christmas Exhibition, Resipole at the Drey, Suffolk Spring Fling, Gracefield Art Centre, Dumfries February Show¸ Art Exposure, Glasgow Five Group Show, Billcliffe Gallery, Glasgow Spring Exhibition, Glasgow Art Club Impressions of Galloway, McGill Duncan Gallery, Castle Douglas Still Life, Red Barn, Melkinthorpe, Cumbria Three Men in a Boat, The Whitehouse, Kirkcudbright Summer Exhibition, The Whitehouse, Kirkcudbright

Aberdeen Asset Management, Edinburgh Art in Healthcare, Edinburgh Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh The Fleming Collection, London Princeton Theological Seminary, USA University of Edinburgh

right: Ewan McClure at Broughton House.

Photograph by Vilja-Louise Skough Åborn

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Published by The Scottish Gallery for the exhibition Ewan McClure: Inside and Out held at 16 Dundas Street from 5 t0 28 May 2022 Exhibition can be viewed online at: www.scottish-gallery.co.uk/ewanmcclure isbn 978 1 912900 50 3 Artworks © Ewan McClure 2o22 Text © the authors 2022 Catalogue © The Scottish Gallery 2022 All rights reserved Photography by Euan Adamson Designed by James Brook, www.jamesbrook.net Printed by Pureprint

front cover image: Kirkcudbright, Summer (detail), 2021 oil on linen laid on board, 82 x 137 cm (cat. 13) back cover image: Light and Moisture (detail), 2022 oil on polyester mesh over mounted paper, 70 x 87 cm (cat. 39) right: Black Mirror (detail), 2021 oil and linen laid on board, 28 x 28 cm (cat. 27)

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