Michael McVeigh | A Sense of Place - March 2021

Michael McVeigh

Michael McVeigh

A Sense of Place

3 - 27 March 2021

16 Dundas Street, EDINBURGH, EH3 6HZ TEL: 0131 558 1200 EMAIL: mail@scottish-gallery.co.uk www.scottish-gallery.co.uk Cover: Leith Harbour, 2020, oil on canvas, 59.5 x 73 cm (detail) (cat 20) Left: Johnstone Terrace Evening, 2020, oil and pencil on stencil paper, 36 x 49.8 cm (detail) (cat 19)

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Michael McVeigh A Sense of Place Michael McVeigh was born in 1957 in the post-war council estate of Lochee, Dundee located on the north west of the city, one of five children. He left school with no formal qualifications; however he wanted to be an artist and so began, unannounced, going to classes at Duncan of Jordanstone Art College. Eventually his presence was challenged and it was James Morrison, then one of the lecturers, who formalised his position and accepted him as a fulltime student, based only on his drawings and painting. Since moving to Edinburgh in 1982 McVeigh has become a familiar figure seen regularly working in the city and until recently, had a stall on Rose Street selling his ‘lizard’ prints. His works are held in both public and private collections including town halls, pubs, fishmongers and a number of municipal and national institutions.

He is a figurative painter and printmaker, a modern day folk artist who depicts the world around him, a participant observer who has created a naive/sophisticated setting for contemporary life and history.

There is something of the medieval chronicler about him; he draws and paints what is there, and what is worth depicting because it is an essential, occasionally quirky, part of human existence. Above all, McVeigh’s work depicts Scotland,

focusing particularly on city life, with all its subcultures and traditions. Edinburgh streets, Scottish pipes and drums, harbour scenes and pubs, fisherfolk and folk musicians come together in a romantic vision of Scotland which is both real and imagined. He draws an older Scotland, referencing painters like Wilkie, Alexander Carse or Howe, the latter now almost forgotten – showing country fairs and gatherings. But contemporary themes dominate. “…the mood of the paintings shifts between a visionary tone with evocations of both folk-art and sophisticated Surrealism, and a late Realist language, evoking memories of Glasgow painters such as Tom MacDonald and Josef Herman, in subject and in social engagement, if not in handling.”

- John Morrison Michael McVeigh has followed an unconventional journey as an artist, and whilst his work can be considered outsider art, it is art that we can all identify with, whether it is a familiar place, event or the changing seasons. He paints unpretentiously and honestly, unaffected by the foibles and fashions of the art world, his gift of the fantastical, macabre or hum drum unmoderated by any desire to please, conform or transgress.

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Out and About in Edinburgh

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1

Towards The Secret Garden, 2017 pencil and crayon on paper, 52 x 66.5 cm

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2

Entrance to the Secret Garden, 2020 oil on canvas, 59.5 x 72.5 cm

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3

Conan Doyle, oil on canvas, 41 x 49.5 cm

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Busy Day in Princes Street Gardens, 2015 mixed media, 52 x 65.5 cm

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Norway Day, Edinburgh, 2015 oil on stencil paper, 50 x 66 cm

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“Half a capital and half a country town, the whole city leads a double existence; it has long trances of the one and flashes of the other; like the king of the Black Isles, it is half alive and half a monumental marble.”

Robert Louis Stevenson’s Edinburgh: Picturesque Notes, 1878

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From Calton Hill, 2020 oil on canvas, 59.5 x 72.5 cm

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The Hole at St James, 2020 mixed media on stencil paper, 46 x 61 cm

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Johnston Terrace, 2017 oil on copper, 15.7 x 11 cm

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Johnston Terrace Winter, 2020 oil and pencil on stencil paper, 31.5 x 23 cm

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Late Autumn, Edinburgh, 2015 oil on stencil paper, 36 x 50 cm

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“Leith Walk from Calton Hill is a realist related painting and the inclination is to read the image as social comment. The cold winter light, snow and dark sky do not offer a comforting reflection. The high tenements parallel to the picture plane face the viewer and the street feels deserted rather than merely empty.

The disquiet the image evokes is heightened by the right hand building with its awkward skewed perspective destabilising what would otherwise be a static, silent vision.”

John Morrison

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Leith Walk from Calton Hill, oil on stencil paper, 27 x 42 cm

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12

Rooftops in the Winter, 2015 mixed media on paper, 54 x 67 cm

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13

The Milk Cart, 2020 oil on canvas, 57 x 74 cm

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Candlemaker Row, 2015 oil on canvas, 46 x 61 cm

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15

Castle Esplanade, 2020 oil and crayon on canvas, 40 x 50 cm

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“The building sits closed and silent in a winter street with a solitary figure sitting on the steps in front. To the right the pub which gives the painting its title, stands in contrast. Its lanterns illuminate bright yellow patrons seen through the windows in pairs with a further two about to enter.

The contrast is firmly made.”

John Morrison

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Conan Doyle, Winter oil on stencil paper, 31 x 45 cm

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Bennetts Bar, 2020 oil on canvas, 49.5 x 60.5 cm

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“Auld Reikie, wale o’ ilka town That Scotland kens beneath the moon!

Whare couthy chiels at e’ening meet Their bizzing craigs and mous to weet” Robert Fergusson, Auld Reekie, 1773

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In the First Taxi, 2018 mixed media on stencil paper, 27 x 37 cm

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“Edina! Scotia’s darling seat!

All hail thy palaces and tow’rs, Where once beneath a Monarch’s feet, Sat Legislation’s sov’reign pow’rs!

From marking wildly-scatt’red flow’rs, As on the banks of Ayr I stray’d, And singing, lone, the ling’ring hours, I shelter in thy honour’d shade” Robert Burns, Address to Edinburgh, 1786

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Johnston Terrace Evening, 2020 oil and pencil on stencil paper, 36 x 49.8 cm

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By the Sea

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20

Leith Harbour, 2020 oil on canvas, 59.5 x 73 cm

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21

Harbour Memories, 2020 oil on canvas, 63.5 x 86 cm

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22

The Leap, Eyemouth, 2020 oil on canvas, 60x 72.5 cm

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23

Harbour History, 2017 oil and pencil on stencil paper, 37.5 x 50 cm

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Harbour, 2020 oil and pencil on stencil paper, 31 x 29.5 cm

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Harbour, 2020 oil and pencil on stencil paper, 21 x 26 cm

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Michael McVeigh

Michael McVeigh in his Edinburgh Studio, 2016. Photograph: Stephen Dunn

1957 1977-1982

Born, Lochee, Dundee Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art

1985 1986 1987 1988 1988 1988 1989 1989 1989 1990 1991 1991 1992 1992 1992 1994 1995-1999 1995-1999 1995-1999 1999 1999-2003 2001-2003 2004 2007 2016 2018 2021

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS Edinburgh Printmakers Workshop Gallery (Solo) Gallery 22, Cupar, Fife Edinburgh Folk Festival Club (Solo) Tron Theatre, Glasgow The Gallery, Cupar, Fife Highland Printers, Inverness Compass Gallery, Glasgow (Solo) Mixed Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh Open Eye Gallery, Edinburgh Loretto Gallery, by Edinburgh Old Gala House, Galashiels (Solo) RSA Annual Exhibition, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh Halliwell’s House Museum & Robson Gallery, Selkirk Wasps Gallery, Edinburgh Hard Ground Soft Ground Exhibition, Edinburgh Printmakers Gracefield Art Centre, Dumfries Compass Gallery, Glasgow Fry Gallery, Saffron Walden Mcintosh Gallery, Kingussie Mixed Exhibition, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh Christmas Exhibition, Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh Summer/Winter exhibitions, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh The Queen’s Gallery, Dundee Imagine Edinburgh, Scottish Storytelling Centre, Edinburgh (Solo) The Romanticism, Folklore and Fantasy of Michael McVeigh, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh Michael Mcveigh, Saints, Souls and Sinners, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh Michael McVeigh, A Sense of Place, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh

COLLECTIONS INCLUDE

Bank of Scotland, Edinburgh

City Art Centre, Edinburgh

Glasgow Caledonian University

Halliwell’s House Museum & Robson Gallery, Selkirk

Kirkcaldy Galleries, Fife

Linlithgow Burgh Halls, Linlithgow

Monklands Hospital Maggies Centre, Airdrie NHS Lothian

The Prestoungrange Gothenburg, Prestonpans

The Scottish Parliament, Edinburgh

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Published by The Scottish Gallery to coincide with the exhibition Michael McVeigh A Sense of Place 3 - 27 March 2021 Exhibition can be viewed online at www.scottish-gallery.co.uk/michaelmcveigh Designed by The Scottish Gallery based on 2016 publication by Kenneth W Gray Photography by The Scottish Gallery and Stephen Dunn All rights reserved. No part of this catalogue may be reproduced in any form by print, photocopy or by any other means, without the permission of the copyright holders and of the publishers.

Right: Harbour History, 2017, oil and pencil on stencil paper, 37.5 x 50 cm (detail) (cat 23)

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