John McClenaghen b. 1964

John McClenaghen is a Scottish Artist who studied at Glasgow School of Art (BA Honours in Fine Art), the University of Huddersfield (PGCE), University of Liverpool and the University of Chester (MA Fine Art). He is currently Senior Lecturer in Fine Art in the School of Creative Arts, Glyndŵr University.

A keen interest in coastal landscapes, John’s work explores weather, time and transformation. Particularly, the ways they are transformed by the changing seasons within the landscape and coast. He takes interest in relating an experience by drawing parallels between the interplay of light and weather upon his subjects. Often returning to the same locations, John begins to establish a rapport with his surroundings. In the studio, he makes spontaneous gestural works on paper. This is done through colour experiments, mark making, and the use of various mediums a process of recollection through creation. This allows the materials to guide his compositions. The layers of decisions in the drawn and painted surfaces recall changes he sees in the natural landscape itself. The reconfiguration of structures, shapes, colours and textures reflecting fluctuating physical forms obscured or revealed by the effects of light and shade.