It involved a lot of creative and academic written work also so painting was not my main focus but as the project developed I became somewhat bewitched by the challenges of plein air painting and since then I have continued to paint with steadily increasing seriousness and commitment. I began to paint as part of a broader political project I set up at the time called the Torpoint Art Service which was about art, austerity and Van Gogh.
John: I have spent a long time studying art at Newcastle University, working in various ways and with various methods, mainly contemporary art, but it wasn’t until leaving in 2011 that I started plein air painting. John Maclean is a British artist currently living and working in Sweden, who works almost exclusively as a plein air painter. The sky with its bruised greys and thick clouds hint at inclement weather ahead. I admire the strong sense of design and the patches of vibrant colour that lead your eye up from the bottom left of the canvas to the top right, navigating through the rocks to the defiant majestic tree on the horizon. There is an energy exuding from the directional brush marks that describe the ruggedness of the scene. It’s execution is reminiscent of the work of Post-Impressionists such as Van Gogh, but the conviction behind every mark ensures it is far from derivative. It stood out to me as a striking landscape painting rendered in strong, deliberate impasto brush marks and sophisticated colour – a palette of blues, violets, muted yellows and soft earth hues. John Maclean’s painting ‘Rock Formation at Grisslehamn’ was included in this year’s Jackson’s Open Painting Prize longlist.
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