ALLAN MACDONALD

Transparency 2019 - Exhibition of New Works

You are invited to the private view of new work by Allan MacDonald. In this exhibition – Transparency – MacDonald continues his exploration of untouched places and their closeness to a powerful prescence. This is done with infinitely expressive paint, making MacDonald an artist of national significance.

Review by Georgina Coburn

Allan MacDonald’s breath taking seascapes reveal why he is regarded as one of the UK’s most respected and accomplished landscape artists. The beauty of MacDonald’s Art lies in its sheer physicality and meditative insight. His is an Art of going out to face the elements in all weathers, in driven pursuit of moments of understanding and connection. This essential honesty is directly translated into the artist’s handling of paint and transcendental palette.

Remote

The writer Michel Faber once described my work as ‘excited despatches from remote places’ and there is an element of truth in this. I am drawn to paint in places where the human imprint is small. But where is truly remote? I can get as much a sense of remoteness looking out my back door as I can from driving till the road runs out on the North West coast.

Joys of painting

One of the joys of painting is the ability to manipulate things. One tree and the moon, a line and a circle, perfect imperfect, near far, finite infinite. A sense of place, if not a sense of time. A mountain massif can become feather light. A solid birch tree transparent. A shapeless snow cloud becomes sculpted and tangible. The moon can appear lit internally, not externally. It’s my choice.

Lunation 2018

Lunation is a period of time, from one new moon to the next. While my work always suggests a sense of place, the lunar presence inevitably creates a sense of time. Locked, fixed time. They are not, in particular, paintings of timelessness. My clock is ticking, so is yours.

Transparency 2019

Perhaps the most remote locations now are the inner places within each individual, the exclusive den where the self crouches, beneath the complex strata of life. This is, of course, the very place Divinity looks to dwell, tries to reach.

Portraits

Yet it’s possible that the layers of sophistication we cover ourselves in are not helping us grow. Picasso said it took him four years to paint like Raphael but a lifetime to paint like a child. Other artists, from Klee to Miro, drew heavily from childhood art..