Barbara McLean, Peer Gallery
Bold brush strokes and powerful compositions characterize Barbara McLean’s canvases no matter what the subject matter. As a painter she is well known for her landscapes. However, recently Barbara has exhibited large, totally abstract works charged with colour and energy. The ebb and flow of compositional elements, along with subtle shifts of tone, remain strong references to the organic roots of these paintings. She says: “Even my abstracts have natural underpinnings. It may be the colours of dawn on the lake near my home, the sweeping lines of a snow drift or the shadows of a spruce bough on the ground that motivate my initial mark making, but my natural environment is almost always the source of my paintings.” (Barbara's Gallery).
Barbara is featured in the book Land and Sea, Landscape Painters of Nova Scotia (Nimbus Press) and one of her abstracts, Passages 8, has been selected for print in the 2010 issue of the Queen’s University visual arts magazine, Lighthouse Wire.
She is the Visual Arts Representative for South Shore Nova Scotia and has curated the region’s 2010 April exhibition, Nurturing Nature, at the Moorings Gallery, Main Street, Mahone Bay.
Barbara McLean holds a BFA from NSCAD University and a certificate of graphic design from Sheridan College.
Solo Exhibitions in 2010
March 19 - May 21: Chance and Circumstance: (Abstract Paintings), Atlantic School of Theology, Halifax
April 1 - April 30: Barbara McLean: Abstract Landscapes, Art Sales and Rental Gallery, Halifax