Le Tiers-Paysage
Calum McClure
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Le Tiers-Paysage Calum McClure
2nd – 25th September 2021
16 Dundas Street Edinburgh EH3 6HZ +44 (0) 131 558 1200 mail@scottish-gallery.co.uk scottish-gallery.co.uk
From his home on the south side of Glasgow, Calum McClure walks the three miles across the city to his studio in the Barras, near the River Clyde. The walk offers a chance to ready himself for the day ahead or to decompress after a long day at the easel. Made over the course of the last two years, the paintings in this exhibition are inspired directly from his daily walks in the city. By following old suburban railway lines, McClure was able to discover seemingly forgotten areas of the city, where nature had started to reclaim once urban areas. McClure is an artist who has always been drawn to paint the edges of the human environment. In Le Tiers-Paysage, McClure has developed these ideas further, using his pathways through the city of Glasgow as a vehicle to explore the interplay between natural and built environments.
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As with earlier bodies of works, the artist’s focus remains on capturing the atmosphere of landscape and public spaces. A revelation was the recent discovery of the landscape architect Gilles Clemént’s concept of the Tiers-Paysage (The Third Landscape), whose writings discuss the places man has left behind to nature, but distinct from any true existent wilderness. McClure felt an immediate connection between Clement’s writings and the themes he was exploring in paint: transitional spaces, embankments, railway sidings, city parks, riverbanks, scrub land, post-industrial sites, and roadsides became his subject. From his daily city walks, McClure has noticed that nature has been both pushed into these places but also enters them and thrives there.
The interplay between man-made structures and the quiet reassertion of nature has produced a body of work which ranges in style; each subject merits a particular technical response, from the depictive style of Suburban Railway Works to the distinctive abstraction of Bridge. All the work, even the most abstract of compositions, is still rooted in observation, the artist’s purpose to retain a poetic truth to the scene he has captured. The Scottish Gallery is delighted to welcome Calum McClure back to for the sixth solo exhibition from this prodigious talent.
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1. Paused Railway Works, oil on canvas, 120 x 160 cm
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2. Araucaria Araucana, oil on canvas, 160 x 120 cm
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3. Midnight City Glow, oil on canvas, 120 x 150 cm
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Moon and Wind is of an entrance to Pollock Park, which became one of the places I went for longer walks during the first lockdown. The slightly frenzied, gestural application of the paint tries to convey both the wind on the evening I took the photograph and the unsettling feeling at the beginning of the pandemic. I was thinking of Degas’ Woman at a Window, painted during the siege of Paris, which gains added poignancy when one knows the sitter is cut off from the city outside by the occupying Prussian army. The saplings and trees in Moon and Wind are similar to Degas’ window, constricting the viewer like a fence or cage from the world beyond. These lattices of trees and branches in the foreground of my paintings have become a leitmotif in the exhibition, seeking to convey that sense of confinement and isolation.
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4. Moon and Wind, oil on canvas, 150 x 120 cm
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The elements of Frame, Tree, And Stream were all captured in a series of photographs on a walk around Mansewood, south of my Glasgow flat. During these walks I began to notice abandoned building sites, in particular the temporary barriers fencing the paused work. The painting attempts to blend the frames and posts of the construction work with the trees and foliage in an almost cubist, dream-like way, hinting at the new permanence of these structures. The tree which overhangs the pool took on a shape which reminded me of The Crucifixion as I painted it. This was unintentional at the outset.
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5. Frame, Tree, and Stream, oil on canvas, 150 x 120 cm
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This painting is of a wood on the periphery of Glasgow, which runs along a dual carriageway. Areas such as these are often overlooked, viewed as intermediary places to be merely passed through. However, the more I began to focus on them during the period of lockdown, the more I noticed how important they are for nature, which flourishes in these places; since once established, it is unmolested. Unlike parks or gardens, farmland, and fields, it is free from human intervention. It made me think of the corridor along the former Iron Curtain, which became a refuge for nature, where it was possible to escape the impact of human activity. On another walk during the summer along the Clyde, I noticed a morass of Fritillary butterflies, crowded on one of the giant hogweeds growing by the river.
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6. Outskirt Woodland in Winter, oil on canvas, 120 x 150 cm
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The area between Glasgow’s Southside and the City Centre is a cluster of brownfield sites, old gasworks and post-industrial buildings. They form an intermediary space near the motorway, which extends along the suburban railways. Near Pollokshields East train station, one of these spaces is overgrown with weeds and grasses sprouting through the cracks and gaps in the concrete. Single trees, usually silver birches but also elder, root in unlikely places, including on building ledges and in troops along the edges of the open space, wherever they can get a hold. These places can convey a melancholic feeling of loss and neglect but are also full of possibility.
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7. Open Ground, Pollokshields, oil on canvas, 120 x 100 cm
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8. Car Park Near The Railway, oil on board, 61 x 51 cm
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Night in a Foreign City is one of the few images in the exhibition not of Glasgow, and was made in 2017 after being in Greece. I wanted to include the piece as a juxtaposition to the works made using the images around my Glasgow home. Since so much has become repetitive and rendered familiar during the Covid 19 restrictions; this painting, which tries to convey the feeling of a first night in a new place, provides an apt contrast. I had arrived in the late evening to Athens and gone for a walk in the area around the apartment I had rented. I think that being somewhere unfamiliar accentuates the darkness. I remember the stepped pavements, shadows cast by planted bushes, and slightly unkept city parks all adding to this feeling of disorientation.
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9. Night In A Foreign City, oil on canvas, 50 x 60 cm
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10. Rock in the Blue, Nocturne, oil on canvas, 60 x 50 cm
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11. Multicoloured Trees And Temporary Barriers, oil on board, 40.5 x 50.5 cm
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12. Suburban Dusk, oil on board, 50.5 x 40.5 cm
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13. Hexagonal Planters, oil on board, 50.5 x 40.5 cm
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14. Blurred Branches From The Train, Trieste, oil on board, 40.5 x 50.5 cm
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15. Wood on the Edge of Town, oil on board, 50.5 x 40.5 cm
16. Abandoned Contruction Site, oil on board, 50.5 x 40.5 cm
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This painting is loosely based on Arnold Boecklin’s Isle of The Dead, 1880. I wanted to reimagine this painting on Glasgow’s River Clyde. There are various parts of the river which are inaccessible because they are docklands or other private property, and this would be the type of location where I imagine such an island could exist. The city’s industrial past is hinted at through the chimney and other brick-coloured forms. As I was working on the painting, it also made me think of the beautiful and wellmaintained cemetery in the Venetian Lagoon, the Isola di San Michele. This imaginary cemetery in the painting is, however, overgrown and would definitely form part of Le Tiers-Paysage.
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17. Isle of the Dead Reimagined In Glasgow, oil on canvas, 50 x 40 cm
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18. Glasgow Green Nocturne, oil on board, 30.5 x 40.5 cm
19. Astract Pool, oil on board, 40.5 x 30.5 cm
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Ongoing Works is one of the many paintings in the exhibition of the suburban railways which extend into Glasgow’s Southside. It contains one of the leitmotifs of the show: that of saplings and branches running close to the picture plane. This is perhaps symbolic of Le Tiers-Paysage: nature finding a place in the small fissures and crevices humans have not colonised. There are also signs of recent work on the railway evinced by the plastic construction barriers in the middle distance; a hint of the constant push and pull between Man and Nature for space.
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20. Ongoing Works, oil on canvas, 30 x 40 cm
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21. Railway Siding, oil on board, 40.5 x 30.5 cm
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22. Buddleja and Railway, oil on canvas, 40 x 30 cm
23. Outbuilding By A River, oil on board, 35.5 x 28 cm
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24. Suburban Stream, oil on board, 35.5 x 28 cm
25. Overlooking the Railway, oil on board, 35.5 x 28 cm
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26. Red Sapling Above The Railway, oil on board, 35.5 x 28 cm
27. Figure Shapes By The Clyde, oil on board, 28 x 35.5 cm
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28. Bridge, oil on board, 40.5 x 30.5 cm
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29. Suburban Garden, oil on board, 22.5 x 30.5 cm
30. Looking North Over Glasgow, oil on board, 25.5 x 20.5 cm
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31. Suburban Park At Midnight, oil on board, 20.5 x 25.5 cm
32. Saplings and Wall, oil on board, 20 x 20 cm
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33. Gulf of Trieste From The Train, oil on board, 20.5 x 15.5 cm
34. Stairs To The Tracks, oil on board, 20.5 x 15.5 cm
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35. Blue Midnight Trees, monotype, 60 x 85 cm
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36. Blue Midnight Near The Tracks, monotype, 60 x 85 cm
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37. Railway At Night, monotype, 43 x 31 cm
38. Suburban Wood, monotype, 31 x 43 cm
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39. Many Arching Trees, monotype, 43 x 31 cm
40. Still Life Nocturne, monotype, 20 x 15 cm
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Paintings
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1. Paused Railway Works 120 x 160 cm
2. Araucaria Araucana 160 x 120 cm
3. Midnight City Glow 120 x 150 cm
4. Moon and Wind 150 x 120 cm
5. Frame, Tree, and Stream 150 x 120 cm
6. Outskirt Woodland in Winter 120 x 150 cm
7. Open Ground, Pollokshields 120 x 100 cm
8. Car Park Near The Railway 61 x 51 cm
9. Night In A Foreign City 50 x 60 cm
10. Rock in the Blue, Nocturne 60 x 50 cm
11. Multicoloured Trees and Temporary Barriers 40.5 x 50.5 cm
12. Suburban Dusk 50.5 x 40.5 cm
13. Hexagonal Planters 50.5 x 40.5 cm
14. Blurred Branches From The Train 40.5 x 50.5 cm
15. Wood on the Edge of Town 50.5 x 40.5 cm
16. Abandoned Contruction Site 50.5 x 40.5 cm
17. Isle of the Dead Reimagined In Glasgow 50 x 40 cm
18. Glasgow Green Nocturne 30.5 x 40.5 cm
19. Astract Pool 40.5 x 30.5 cm
20. Ongoing Works 30 x 40 cm
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21. Railway Siding
22. Buddleja and Railway
40.5 x 30.5 cm
40 x 30 cm
23. Outbuilding By A River
24. Suburban Stream
35.5 x 28 cm
35.5 x 28 cm
25. Overlooking the Railway
26. Red Sapling Above The Railway
35.5 x 28 cm
35.5 x 28 cm
27. Figure Shapes By The Clyde
28. Bridge
28 x 35.5 cm
40.5 x 30.5 cm
29. Suburban Garden
30. Looking North Over Glasgow
22.5 x 30.5 cm
25.5 x 20.5 cm
31. Suburban Park At Midnight
32. Saplings and Wall
20.5 x 25.5 cm
20 x 20 cm
33. Gulf of Trieste From The Train
34. Stairs To The Tracks
20.5 x 15.5 cm
20.5 x 15.5 cm
35. Blue Midnight Trees
36. Blue Midnight Near The Tracks
60 x 85 cm
60 x 85 cm
37. Railway At Night
38. Suburban Wood
43 x 31 cm
31 x 43 cm
39. Many Arching Trees
40. Still Life Nocturne
43 x 31 cm
20 x 15 cm
Monotypes
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During the last two years, my practice has shifted slightly, mostly because of the pandemic, to being more painting and studio based. Before, my time was shared equally between my painting and printmaking practices. At first, this lack of social and professional contact with other artists at Glasgow Print Studio was challenging; but over time it gave me more focus and my painting practice developed more than it otherwise would have. Being near my subject matter daily is also something which I have not previously experienced. Usually I visit sites, make photographs, and then return to studio to digest them; they become the source and I rarely visit the sites again. However, making this body of work based on suburbs and my daily walks to studio and around Glasgow, gave me the opportunity to constantly reflect and to return to places as I was working on canvases in the studio. Overall, I feel this exhibition is more focused than previous ones, as well as being more diverse in approach; some works have become more complex in their abstraction, and this is due to working on them solidly for weeks at a time, without pause. There is also a group of monotypes and more representational paintings in response to the idea of Le Tiers- Paysage. I still enjoy this variety of expression, since every atmosphere I encounter needs to be expressed in a slightly different mode.
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Calum McClure
Solo Exhibitions
b. 1987 in Edinburgh Living and working in Glasgow
2021 Le Tiers-Paysage The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
2010: Graduated in Drawing and Painting from Edinburgh College of Art
Selected Group Exhibitons 2021 Mono Glasgow Print Studio 2018 From The Sublime to the Concrete The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh 2017 Good Nature Candida Stevens, Chichester Spring - Looking At The New Candida Stevens, Chichester Small is Beautiful Flowers Gallery, London 2016 Out of the Wood Groundwork Gallery, King’s Lynn The View From The Train Glasgow Print Studio
2019 Sussex Landscapes Candida Stevens Gallery, Chichester 2018 In These Places The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh Somewhere Becoming Rain Glasgow Print Studio 2017 Generations of Colour Tatha Gallery, Newport-on-Tay 2016 Monotype Glasgow Print Studio Nocturnes and Botanics The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh 2014 Reflection The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh 2013 Monotypes The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh 2011 New Paintings and Drawings The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh
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Published by The Scottish Gallery for the exhibition: Calum McClure: Le Tiers-Paysage held at 16 Dundas Street from 2nd – 25th September 2021 Exhibition can be viewed online at: www.scottish-gallery.co.uk/calummcclure Design: Andrew Bell Photography of artworks: John McKenzie Photography of artist: Scott McClure Print: Kingsbury Press All rights reserved. No part of this catalogue may be reproduced in any form by print, photocopy or by any other means, without the permission of the copyright holders and of the publishers. ISBN 978 1 912900 40 4
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