Gravity and Light

Ewan McClure

We are delighted to host Ewan McClure’s first solo exhibition at The Scottish Gallery. He is a painter of prodigious talent using oil paint in the Scottish tradition of Belle Peinture, so well represented in our history by both Glasgow Boys and Scottish Colourists. For subjects he chooses landscape, here of Sweden in particular: fresh, pleine air studies; the figure: still, in movement, always psychologically animated, and still life/interior giving ample scope for original composition and play of light.

A fully illustrated catalogue introduces a new painter for whom the title genius seems quite appropriate.

To the casual observer, a still life painter’s workday involves a surprising amount of arbitrary juggling with bric-a-brac. But amid the trial-and error process of setting up; principles of harmony and order are dimly suggesting themselves to the painter – there to be obeyed or defied. As an idea finally crystallises, every passage of space and form is understood to relate to every other, and the channelled excitement of painting can begin. Ewan McClure