Mike McLean is an award winning critically successful artist, his works
represented in global collections including New York, London and Australia.
"Mike's art is unique and of the highest standard."
Lane - Sydney.
"We purchased an original Mike through SEEN
last year....it still captures us every day."
Sascha - Melbourne.
"HI Mike,
I just LOVE THE PAINTING!!! It just looks so fresh and bright in the house. Can't stop
admiring it. Red is perfect for our lounge which has red cushions and a red rug! Can't
thank you enough!"
Sam - Melbourne.
"Mike McLeans striking paintings reveal his internal emotional
attachment to his close circle of family, friends and those he observes around him. His
works are highly distinctive, characterized by vibrant colours and bold painterly
brushstrokes.
Mike is an artist deeply concerned with the process of painting. He can only paint when
settled in a regular routine with a surrounding that "works" for him. His works
are studies exploring the texture of paint, the expressive gesture of the brush and the
nature of the canvas surface. It is these concerns that allow him to represent dramatic
emotions and colours so effectively. The layers of paint with which Mike builds up on the
surfaces of his work reflect layers of emotional state itself. Blocks of colour convey the
rich emotional background to each image. Small patches of under-painting remain visible
and recall the raw personal state of the artist beneath the lush bold image that captures
the viewer.
Mikes paintings are also studies in composition. Some works are dramatic landscapes
conveying people in states of paused emotional states. In other paintings, there is a
basic, block-like view of the entities displaying only base engagement with each other on
the canvas; an almost autistic viewpoint or observation struggling to convey (via the
painterly medium) the way we engage as humans.
Mikes often patterning of colour and gesture upon the canvas recalls the works of
Andy Warhol and another noted Australian artist Michael Leunig. Mike's works remain
representations of a unique emotional states he has personally experienced (the birth of a
child, the engagement with a lover etc). They flicker between the two dimensional canvas
surface and the three dimensional dramatic vistas of pebbled earth and open cloudy sky
that characterize the South-east coast of England where he spent a decade rearing a young
family. This flickering between two dimensional and abstraction and three dimensional
vista can also be found in the art of English painters such as Peter Lanyon and William
Scott. It is also a characteristic of Fred William's most striking landscapes."
Aimery - Melbourne.
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