Fotheringham Gallery

Ian McWhinnie

Ian McWhinnie was born in 1952 and studied at Glasgow School of Art from 1970-1974.  He won the Morton Fraser Award for Visual Arts Scotland in 2004 and was a prizewinner at the Paisley Institute for Fine Art.  He has works in private collections in USA, Australia, France, Spain and Argentina.

He says: "My subject matter is from an accumulation of images from memories, drawings and photographs gathered from travels and observations.

I use these images to compose paintings which have a sense of mystery. The figures in the paintings have an anonymity and over the years have become almost like dramatic characters in a performance. I originally used these images in ceramics but over time developed them into paintings.

Today I tend to work in both disciplines. The paintings are done in oils on gesso board, starting with a detailed tonal pencil drawing, followed by a thin monochrome painting over which the oil paint is subsequently applied.  They are finished by applying thin coloured glazes.  The ceramics are either thrown on the wheel or hand built using a white earthenware clay fired to 1120 degrees centigrade, then painted using metal oxides and underglaze colours and finally glazed with a low solubility transparent glaze fired at 1060 degrees centigrade."