McLain, Hamish

Norman Moores Fellow in Drawing and Painting 2005/06
Liverpool School of Art and Design, John Moores University

BA (Hons) Fine Art
Liverpool School of Art and Design, John Moores University

Painting

Painting is the way I go about figuring out my place in the world around me. Its tactile quality as a substance allows me to follow my thoughts and the feelings the closest as they ch ange and develop. The possibilities presented to me by painting and drawing, through mark making, colour, imagery and form provide a challenging activity to engage with.

I like messing around with paint and seeing what I can do with it. Letting it run over a particular surface to create an interesting texture or making it thicker or thinner and seeing how it behaves. It can seem like quite an experimental way of working, doing this to that and finding something out.

Different work of mine speaks about different things. Some small pieces focus on a few simple elements, they can seem to speak quite clearly. Bigger pieces throw it all into the pot and attempt to wrestle some kind of resolution out of it, maybe in a more hectic manner, though I’m always after the same thing – to try and communicate a sense of my involvement in the making of the work. Drama is created in the relationship between marks, gestures, colours and shapes. I try to gage that drama or feeling to help finish the painting.

I have just completed an Artist Fellowship in the Fine Art Department of Liverpool School of Art and Design. It started in September 2005 and culminated at the end of March 2006 with a Final Show of the work made during the year.

I now have a studio in The Royal Standard on Windsor Street . At the moment I’m figuring out where to take my work next.

2006 The Norman Moores Fellowship in Drawing and Painting – 2A Myrtle Street , Liverpool School of Art and Design – Solo Exhibition

2006 Fresh Paint – 68 Hope Street Gallery, Liverpool School of Art and Design – Solo Exhibition

2005 Sefton Open, The Atkinson Art Gallery , Southport – Group Show – ‘Cluster’

2005 52 Roscoe Street , Liverpool – Group Exhibition by JMU Fine Art Graduates – ‘Space Dividers’

2005 The Ballad of Ray and Julie, Seel Street / Slater Street, Liverpool – Commission, public billboard painting