With a focus on landscape and contemplative outdoor scenes, John Maclean sources his imagery from salvaged, hand-tinted postcards or print-outs from the internet. Although small, these paintings evoke ideas of a larger narrative, where we, the viewer, only experience a single vignette from a much broader storyline. With its story-telling qualities, it is difficult not to compare Maclean’s approach to painting with his other creative pursuit in writing and directing films.
Though gaining an education in visual arts, including studying at the Royal College of Art, Maclean took a hiatus from painting to follow his musical career as a founding member of the influential group The Beta Band (1996-2005). He then pursued film directing and only returning to painting during the pandemic an subsequently being offered his first solo show which took place at White Columns in New York in March 2022.
John Maclean (b. Perth, Scotland 1972) lives and works in London, UK.