* All images used with permission. Please do not distribute without first contacting the artist.
Ian Mclean studied at the University of Guelph and has exhibited widely at several public and commercial galleries. He is a recent recipient of an Ontario Arts Council Mid-Career Visual Artist Grant and his work is found in collections across Canada and internationally.
Ian explains his work by saying, “I choose to paint with oil. It is fluid and messy and it often does not behave. It is a rather serious medium with an enormous history but I like to coax and cajole and use it to render images that are at once irreverent and laden with serious subtext. I like moments in painted surfaces that can be alluring, impulsive, seductive, and irrational. I want the viscosity of the medium to reveal passages of control and chaos all the while evoking a sense of beauty and ambiguity in a sea of paint. My current work explores relationships between social and natural worlds. The environments are sometimes familiar but are usually imagined places. At all times, my images suggest efforts to contain, control, manipulate, or avoid circumstances of nature as evidenced in highly groomed and domesticated environments. The implied narratives usually reflect a deep-seated desire for comfort or beauty or distraction.”