David McClure

RSA, RSW Born: 1926
Place of Birth: Lochwinnoch
Died: 1998

David McClure was born in Lochwinnoch in 1926. He enrolled at Edinburgh College of Art in 1947, from which point he was to be associated with a group of highly regarded young painters including James Cumming, William Baillie, John Houston, Elizabeth Blackadder and David Michie.
McClure’s work sits solidly within that well-documented tradition of 20th century Scottish Painting characterised by strength of colour and confident handling of paint. As a bold and inspired colourist McClure had few equals. He is best known for his colourful, painterly still lifes and flower-pieces, his subject pictures of children’s dreams or religious figures and later his nudes and studio interiors. Landscapes too were a significant part of his work, inspired by harbour scenes from the East Neuk of Fife or the East Coast fishing villages above Dundee. In later years he produced lyrical coastal landscapes of north-west Sutherland.

David McClure was the subject of a solo exhibition in April 2019 - Art & Industry - Ardrossan to Millport. To view the catalogue accompanying this exhibition please click here. To watch edited highlights of Robin McClure discussing his father's work, please click here.

A selection of work is currently on exhibit in David McClure's A Sicilian Story exhibition from 3-26 February 2022.