John McClenaghen

The Grandson of a ploughman and nephew to a shepherd and a grieve, John McClenaghen grew up in Falkirk where relatives on his mother’s side of the family remained in farming. His early years were therefore partly spent on farms around Stirlingshire and later the East Lothian coast where the land meets the sea with only a narrow dune field between them and this has remained an enduring theme in his work.

McClenaghen is interested in painting’s ability to relate experience by drawing parallels between the action of light and weather upon his subjects and the action of colour and mark upon the canvas. Like the weather, paint can be wonderfully unpredictable allowing him to create constantly changing surfaces, harnessing the fluidity and dynamism of the medium.