The possibilities of a blank, white canvas are endless. Then one idea, one big-bang moment, a lot of activity and energy and the basic elements of the work emerge, the journey begins. The rest is just time and subtle change: you have to lose ideas you love along the way but others emerge and steer you in a new direction. Ideas only come when you’re approaching the edge of things and as an artist you then have the liberty to make sense of them in any way you choose. Stories often unfold in many directions all at once, creating a thread that runs through several different pictures; they might even reveal hidden meanings that can be explored or tucked away and left hidden. Always, you try and keep a constant state of wonder and the feeling of some new discovery.

There is no real beginning or end to the work; it’s just a continuing journey. You rely on a deep well of ideas to take you further on, closer to the edge of the world, through the maelstrom and what Herman Melville described as ‘that howling infinite’. The paintings imagine those journeys where humanity is pitted against the great forces of nature: travellers trying to make sense of what lies ahead, the prospector looking for fortune, the naturalist on a distant shore or the Bounty’s mutineers escaping to the edge of the earth in their search for paradise. For all of them, for all of us, the marvel is the view into infinity which these journeys afford, the universe glimpsed through a break in the clouds or the chance encounter with a comet’s endless voyage; or through those internal journeys: secrets decoded in a mathematician’s scribbled formulae or an artist sitting in contented solitude trying to draw the perfect circle. - Barry McGlashan 2013

Barry McGlashan has been endlessly drawn to small town America. From his walking trips to the Mid-West Barry makes paintings both cinematic and intimate, full of affection for the rural communities and expansive landscapes he is drawn to.

Barry has exhibitied widely in the UK and his paintings are held in many major collections.

John Martin Gallery
38 Albemarle Street
London W1S 4JG Unted Kingdom
Ph. +44 (0)20 74991314
info@jmlondon.com
www.jmlondon.com

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