Meet Jock McFadyen RA
Here at Art on a Postcard we are incredibly excited to have Jock McFadyen RA, a highly commended British landscape painter, as a contributing artist for out Art on a Ukulele collaboration!
http://www.jockmcfadyen.com
Jock McFadyen RA is a British Painter living and working in London, Edinburgh and France. Born in Scotland Mcfadyen moved to London age 15 to study at Chelsea School of Art where he earned an MA in 1977. Between 1980-2005 he taught at the Slade School of Art and in 1981 he was Artist in Residence at the National Gallery, London. He then set up Grey Gallery which he runs with his wife, violinist Susie Honeyman.
Jock has stated that his work has taken many stages that occur almost as a reaction to the last. In the 1991 he was commissioned to design the set for Kenneth MacMillan’s last Ballet The Judas Tree at the Royal Opera House and because the dancers were on stage his set featured no people. Since then he has said that his focus on landscapes is due to realising that the people in his paintings were just props ‘a crutch to painting the landscape’. Citing American realist film as an influence, his style is a wonderful blend of photographic realism and his own unique ability to paint the magic and humour lurking within ordinary modern life landscapes with a distinctive painterly style.
McFadyen's studio is in London Fields. Identifying himself as a landscape painter, Jock has always painted from his immediate surroudings. Claiming Whistler and Lowry as his main inspirations, Mcfayden's work echoes their themes and styles. The first pictures to emerge in the 1980s from Jock's studio were populated by the 'waifs and strays of pre Canary Wharf London'. Since, he has lived in the East End and his work has consequently taken a mainly urban tone since.
On his urban landscape subject matter; Jock says;
'When I was a student at Chelsea in the 70s, the previous generation were the pop artists and my work was quite stark and self referential. But when I became an artist in Residence at the National Gallery in 1981, I realised I couldn't spend my life just making art about art, so I started painting what I saw on the street - what could be less fashionable? If you are a landscape painter, you can only paint one place at a time. So the question is, are you an East End painter, or are you just a landscape painter that happens to live here?'
Jock has had over 40 solo exhibitions, and his work is held by over 30 public collectors, as well as private and public collections. He was elected a Royal Academician of the Royal Academy of the Arts in 2012 - we couldn't be more thrilled to have him participate in our Ukulele project!
http://www.jockmcfadyen.com
We are so delighted to have Jock on board with the trust, and are so excited to see how he approaches our Art on a Ukulele project so please join us to find out more by having a look at our Phundee page and getting involved, and signing up to our mailing list (at the bottom of the page) to receive updates about this project and to find out about our crowdfunding campaign, the rewards we are offering and be part of the process over the next few weeks.
About the writer
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Claudia has written for various publications including GQ and LOVE magazine. She graduated from the University of Leeds in 2014 with a 2:1 Geography and has since gone on to pursue a career in fashion, and is a full time model with Storm London. A keen writer and fashion enthusiast; her secret project 'ClaudRobe' will be launching later this Summer. |
