Robert Macmillan Lost in Wonder
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THE
SCOTTISH
GALLERY
CONTEMPORARY ART SINCE 1842
Robert Macmillan Lost in Wonder
4 - 28 March 2020
16 Dundas Street Edinburgh EH3 6HZ +44 (0)131 558 1200 scottish-gallery.co.uk
Introduction This is the second exhibition of Robert Macmillan The Scottish Gallery has hosted since his first in 2012, and it is long overdue. Macmillan has been working continuously since graduating from Duncan of Jordanstone Art College in Dundee in 1997 and has quietly emerged as a significant contributor to Scottish landscape painting. The artist lists the Tonalists as well as Turner as major influences on his work, but his paintings too can be read in the context of a north-east tradition in Scottish painting which includes Sylvia Wishart, Joan Eardley, Frances Walker, James Howie, James Morrison and Philip Braham, all of whom have strived to capture poetic truth in the landscape. While his work is seldom located to a specific locality, Macmillan gathers his subject matter by walking from his home in Broughty Ferry, now often accompanied by his young family. A little further afield he visits Lunan Bay, Tentsmuir Beach and West Sands near St Andrews, deeply familiar places where he allows himself to absorb the particular atmosphere derived from the ever changing weather and season. As he walks his eye observes the changing light, the nuances of cloud, the effect of sun on water, mist lingering in the morning or a sea haar rolling in from the North Sea. Back in his Dundee studio Macmillan will begin the lengthy painting process. First he will build up multiple layers of paint on boards, prepared with many layers of gesso, left to dry and then sanded back to reveal strata of colour. Careful choices must be made to harmonise the revelation of layers and the newest marks. Macmillan has developed this technique over a number of years, the outcome of which are paintings infused with a luminous quality, perfectly developed to capture the transient effect of light on the Tay landscape as he seeks to combine both the physical and emotional experience of landscape. We are delighted to welcome Robert Macmillan back to The Scottish Gallery and look forward to watching the continuing rise of this prestigious talent. Tommy Zyw The Scottish Gallery
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Robert Macmillan in his Dundee studio, January, 2020
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Lost in Wonder Macmillan’s latest body of work continues a theme that has been running through his work for several years: the landscape of Scotland’s east coast and its unique quality of light. Yet Macmillan’s paintings are not naturalistic copies of these landscapes. He does not paint on location nor, indeed, from photographs. Taking his inspiration from specific sites, such as the area around Lunan Bay with its long shoreline of funnelled rivers and hidden coves, he captures the uncanny mood and feeling of these striking vistas. During long walks he immerses himself in the landscape, registering, almost subconsciously, the subtle changes of cloud formation that create the shifting patterns of form and colour, light and tone. For Macmillan such registering is very different from the empirical observation of the scientific eye. It is the imaginative disclosure of his lived experience of a landscape that speaks through recalled memory and poetry. For him the terrain of Lunan Bay carries meaning well beyond its surface appearance. His paintings resonate with viewers at many different levels, tapping into a more universal human experience that transcends the specific moment and location of his original inspiration. Macmillan’s paintings take a long time to produce. The artist often works on several paintings at a time, leaving many unfinished for days or weeks, sometimes months, before returning to them. Emerging patiently and gradually, the 4
paintings embody the slow movement of time - or ‘timelessness’ - of the landscape. Yet, this slow pace belies the many changes that the landscape - and Macmillan’s paintings - undergo. Macmillan fondly quotes Turner’s maxim, ‘never to loose a mistake.’ For him making ‘mistakes’ is an integral part of the spontaneity and playfulness of his painting practice, as when erasing, altering or refining the rhythms and forms of his compositions.
Robert Macmillan in his Dundee studio, December, 2019
This is abundantly clear from Macmillan’s technique. Built upon layer on layer of oil paint, applied by brush or palette knife, his images are scraped, sanded and modified much as the landscape itself is transformed over time by its exposure to the elements. Macmilllan uses gessoed panels for his paintings. If the paint has been scraped to the bare surface, it exposes glimpses of brilliant white. When glazed, these thin slithers of white create the luminous, incandescent light that permeate many of his paintings
and has become one of his defining trademarks. As veiled sunlight waiting to break through the clouds, they evoke hints of hope and new life.
appearance. He does not take any of that for granted. Indeed, as his paintings clearly show, Macmillan allows himself to be ‘lost in wonder.’
Macmillan’s landscapes not only convey a history of natural processes, they also show moments of human intervention, sometimes poignantly so. Some of his works show the shelters or ‘pillboxes’ used by the armed forces in the Second World War. Found scattered amongst the coastline, these man made defences remind us of the strange symbiosis between man and nature.
Dr. Adrienne Chaplin Kings College London
Macmillan lists George Inness, Odd Nerdrum, James McNeil Whistler and, most of all Turner, as his sources of inspiration. It is easy to see how Turner’s uses of colour and application of paint have found their way into Macmillan’s work. But one could make yet another comparison, less of style than of spirit. That is with the eminent seventeenthcentury Dutch landscape painter Jacob van Ruisdael. In Ruisdael’s work, a landscape, no matter how realistic in appearance, is never a mere realistic copy of nature, or ‘value-free.’ It always embodies a particular way of looking at the world. In Ruisdael’s paintings, natural sun light is often an intimation of a higher, spiritual light that illuminates the day-to-day activities of human affairs. Something like that can also be found in Macmillan’s paintings. Seeing the the effects of light on the natural landscape, he is mesmerised by the splendour and harmony of its 5
1 Lost in Wonder 2020, oil on board 122 x 122 cm
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2 Lunan Bay 2020, oil on board 91 x 152 cm
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3 Study for Lunan Bay I 2020, oil on board 34 x 30 cm
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4 Study for Lunan Bay II 2020, oil on board 46 x 60 cm
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5 Momentary Splendour 2020, oil on board 32 x 28 cm
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6 Chorus 2020, oil on board 48 x 33 cm
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7 When Light Meets Shadow (Shelter I) 2020, oil on board 30 x 25 cm
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8 Arch (Shelter II) 2020, oil on board 25 x 21 cm 9 A Quiet Place (Shelter III) 2020, oil on board 25 x 25 cm
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10 Towards the Castle 2020, oil on board 30 x 30 cm
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11 Before the Rain 2020, oil on board 30 x 30 cm
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12 Like Finding Gold 2020, oil on board 14 x 14 cm
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13 Towards St Andrews 2020, oil on board 34 x 38 cm
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14 Light and Nuance 2020, oil on board 61 x 48 cm
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15 Chasing Echoes 2020, oil on board 56 x 54 cm
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16 Moonlight 2020, oil on board 11 x 11 cm
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17 Cloud Study I 2020, oil on board 19.5 x 25 cm
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18 Cloud Study II 2020, oil on board 21 x 25 cm
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19 Study for Lost in Wonder 2020, oil on paper, mounted on board 13 x 13 cm
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Biography Robert Macmillan b.1974, Glasgow
Education: 1993-1997 BA (Hons) Fine Art: Drawing and Painting, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee 2005-2006 Masters of Design (Illustration), Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee Awards: 2009 International Artist Finalist, International Artist Magazine Dec/Jan 2007 Aspect Painting Prize Winner (1 of 4 awarded) 2002 Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts Exhibition Award 2001 Noble Grossart Painting Prize Finalist 1997 John Eadie Award for Painting 1997 John Kinross Travelling Scholarship
Solo Exhibitions: 2020 Lost in Wonder, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh 2019 Passages of Light and Darkness, The Fraser Gallery, St Andrews 2017 Painting Silence Before it Disappears, The Fraser Gallery, St Andrews 2016 Approaching Light, 108 Fine Art, Harrogate 2015 Refining Light, Fraser Gallery, St Andrews 2013 New Work, Fraser East Gallery, St Andrews 2012 In the Stillness of Light, The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh 2010 New Work, The Fraser East Gallery, St Andrews 2009 Light in the Darkest of Places, The Fraser Gallery, St Andrews 2004 New Work, The Edinburgh Gallery, Edinburgh 2003 Lighter Shades of Darkness, The Kelly Gallery, Glasgow 2002 New Work, 108 Fine Art, Harrogate 2000 Out of Darkness, 108 Fine Art, Harrogate Selected Collections: Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art, Dundee Private collections in the USA, Egypt, South Africa and Norway
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Robert Macmillan in his Dundee studio, December, 2019
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Published by The Scottish Gallery to coincide with the exhibition Robert Macmillan Lost in Wonder 4 - 28 March 2020 The Scottish Gallery thanks Dr. Adrienne Chaplin, Kings College London for her introduction. Exhibition can be viewed online at: scottish-gallery.co.uk/robertmacmillan ISBN: 978-1-912900-17-6 Introduction: copyright Dr. Adrienne Chaplin Front cover: Lunan Bay, 2020, oil on board, 91 x 152 cm (cat.2) Designed and produced by The Scottish Gallery Printed by Barr Colour Printers 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.
THE
SCOTTISH
GALLERY
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CONTEMPORARY ART SINCE 1842 16 DUNDAS STREET • EDINBURGH EH3 6HZ +44 (0) 131 558 1200 • scottish-gallery.co.uk
THE
SCOTTISH
GALLERY
CONTEMPORARY ART SINCE 1842
34