John Maclean’s painting ‘Rock Formation at Grisslehamn’ was included in this year’s Jackson’s Open Painting Prize longlist. 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. 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. There is an energy exuding from the directional brush marks that describe the ruggedness of the scene. 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. The sky with its bruised greys and thick clouds hint at inclement weather ahead. John Maclean is a British artist currently living and working in Sweden, who works almost exclusively as a plein air painter.
‘Rock Formation at Grisslehamn’
John Maclean
Oil on canvas, 64 x 53 cm, 2017
Lisa: Can you tell us a bit about yourself, how long you have been painting for, where you are based and your influences?
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. 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. 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. In 2015 I moved from Cornwall to settle in rural Sweden where I have a studio and exhibition space where I show in the summer months. My partner and I also run a small art centre in our spare time called the Bergby Konst Center where we hold exhibitions and we have a guest house where artists and writers can come and work in residence for a while. We have artists of all types coming to stay but the surroundings are particularly suitable for plein air painting.
Summer Exhibition 2016 at Bergby Konst Center, set up by John Maclean
Lisa: Can you tell us a bit about ‘Rock Formation at Grisslehamn’? How you came to paint this particular scene and any particular challenges you met when painting this work?
John: The port town of Grisslehamn is about 5 minutes drive from my house and ordinarily I have a rule about only painting subjects within walking distance but Rock Formation at Grisslehamn is an exception that I allowed as I have a summer exhibition in the town. The rock formations there have a curious mix of smooth and jagged, staggered forms that I like very much and they provide a good subject for the way I like to paint at the moment which is to rapidly apply paint in salvos across the canvas to link up the fore, mid and backgrounds.
The painting was completed in two morning sessions, the first to get to grips with the scene, establish the composition and the second was for the really committed work. The main challenge was the wind. I had some rock weights to keep the easel from blowing away but I still had to hold the canvas with one hand and paint with the other at times which was difficult but I think it helped create a particularly energetic feel to the picture. It was so windy that I knew I couldn’t stay out for long so I attacked the picture and left before I had time to think much about it or rework areas which in my case often leads to a spoiling.
John Maclean: ‘Rock Formation at Grisslehamn’ in progress
Lisa: How do you prepare yourself for a session of outdoor painting? What equipment do you take with you and how do you keep organised?
John: Preparation mostly involves getting the canvas ready. I make my own canvas stretchers and I order a roll of canvas from Jacksons which I cut to size. I will stain the canvas with a pale mid tone the colour of which depends on the season, the weather, the subject and any effect I may want. In terms of organisation I discovered fairly early on that I could not work in an organised or clean way so I now take an approach that limits the chaos which is essentially a big bag with my palette and paints and a box easel.
‘Ant Nest in Heavy Snow’
John Maclean
Oil on canvas, 55 x 42 cm, 2017
Lisa: What makes a good subject for a painting?
John: I think there are lots of generically good nature subjects such as trees, flowers, wide open spaces, but beyond that I often choose the subject based on what I may be reading about an artist or maybe something I have noticed in a Van Gogh or Cezanne for example and wondered how they did it and if I could apply that myself. Any subject that poses a challenge or seems daunting is worth doing I think. My painting practice is based a lot on embracing and drawing energy form the feeling that ‘I can’t do it’. I think it is an important feeling to preserve because I find that when you are put in a position where you don’t know what to do then you are forced to be more creative and less likely to fall back on the tried and tested. Understanding and developing the craft of painting is crucial but I think choosing subjects that seem intimidating is a good way to develop as a painter.
John Maclean: Painting in heavy snow, Bergby, January 2017
Lisa: Do you have any favourite art materials that you like to work with (favourite brands of paint or brushes?)
John: I use Jackson’s Artist Oils and as for brushes I do not have the discipline to take the necessary care of quality ones so I just gather as many cheap and readily available brushes as I can and dispose of them when they fail.
‘Branch of Apples’
Oil on canvas, 54 x 39cm, 2016
Lisa: How important are preparatory sketches in your work? Do you ever do any?
John: I sometimes sketch to establish what I will paint next and if I had time I would certainly do this more often as I find it very helpful to arrive at the subject knowing the rough composition and even having the chance to think about the painting for a day or so in advance really helps. On the other hand it can be beneficial to just walk into the fields and see what is about. Ideally I would like to develop a serious drawing practice and perhaps focus on it for weeks at a time with the aim of setting up a dialogue between drawing and painting. The way this dynamic plays out in the work of Van Gogh has always fascinated me.
‘Blue Tent From The Forest’
John Maclean
Oil on canvas, 70 x 50 cm, 2016
Lisa: How important is working in front of the subject for you? Do you ever leave the subject to finish work, or paint away from the subject and what are the key differences for you in the 2 approaches?
John: It is absolutely essential to work in front of the subject for me as it gives you so many things that you do not get if working from memory or from a photograph. I’m thinking of the struggle with the elements and the ever changing conditions that mean that the finished work is a combination of many different aspects of the subject at varying times and appearances. I occasionally have to work from photographs for some commissioned work and whenever I do it emphasises what a different activity it is compared to plein air painting. For me it is precisely the impossible struggle to capture a scene as it changes and within a limited timeframe that gives a painting its unique life and energy. It becomes necessary to improvise in front of the subject and develop a relationship between oneself and the environment and these things are for me the most exhilarating aspect of painting and I feel they are absent when working from a photograph.
In terms of working away from the subject I do sometimes make minor changes, usually the same evening after I have had time to study it a little but these changes involve picking some paint from one part of the canvas and applying it elsewhere rather than getting the palette out and doing another session. If I am dissatisfied I leave it how it is as I have found that with the passing of time a work that had seemed flawed reveals something else. The feeling of struggle and urgency in the paint that results from working outside is crucial for me so I would rather go back the next day and start again than try to rework a canvas in the studio.
So for me it goes without saying that I must paint from nature, but I go a step further and actually try to limit the scope of possible locations for painting to that which I can walk or cycle to. I have found that to root the practice in the immediate environment and to develop ideas for pictures based on daily observation and experience of familiar surroundings and on the seasonal changes that occur is very rewarding and in fact leads more to a set of themes which can be revisited year after year. It is tempting to paint attractive scenes in other locations but if I could paint anything and everything then it would be simply overwhelming and would perhaps result in a fragmented body of work. Also it is worth adding that the impressionist and post impressionist painters that I am most influenced by were similarly limited to their immediate surroundings and I think that by imposing this limitation on myself takes me closer to their painting experience.
‘Rolls of Wheat’
John Maclean
Oil on canvas, 70 x 53 cm, 2016
Lisa: Who do you consider to be your biggest artistic influence?
John: I admire the work of countless known and unknown painters but mostly I like to draw inspiration from the root source of plein air painting and the original pioneers who developed the practice trough the Barbizon school, Impressionist and Post-Impressionist periods. Post-impressionism is most influential to me particularly the idea of making something more solid and symbolic out of ones immediate impression of a subject and for the more autonomous use of colour. In terms of a single artist I think Van Gogh is my main influence for the energy he achieves in the paint but also his focus on seasonal themes and of course his letters.
‘New Flowers’
John Maclean
Oil on canvas, 70 x 54cm, 2017
Lisa: What are you working on at the moment?
John: At present I am working on capturing the effects of spring in the landscape around my home and recently I have been taking subjects from very close up and from very low down and trying to find effective ways of linking the near and far away areas. For these it is necessary to paint lying down which doesn’t make it easy but as is so often the case the slight change in working method has begun to bring about some unexpected results. So I’ll be doing that for a while then the fruit trees will be in blossom so I’ll have a look at those.
Lisa: Where online or in the flesh can we view more of your work?
John: I tend to sell work locally from my own gallery and am not represented in the UK at present but you can see detailed images of my paintings at www.macleanoilpainting.com and also at johnxmaclean.wixsite.com/torpointartservice
‘Still Life with Bureau’
John Maclean
Oil on canvas, 65 x 59 cm, 2017
Header Image: John Maclean in the studio
Wow, beautiful work! Very interesting
read, thanks
I really enjoyed this piece. It is really good to see a
young person living the dream .