Abigail McLellan
Abigail McLellan belongs to the rich tradition of Scottish figurative painting. She studied at the Glasgow School of Art, developing an extraordinarily sure sense of both colour and design. Influenced by the colourist inheritance of Scottish art from Peploe to Craigie Aitchison and by the taut economy of the Japanese aesthetic (mediated perhaps through the work of Charles Rennie Mackintosh), she evolved her own very personal artistic language.
McLellan's luminously-coloured pared-down paintings of flowers, corals and interiors have the strength and simplicity of icons. Her idiosyncratic portrait work was also highly acclaimed, being exhibited at both the National Portrait Gallery in London, and the Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh. She extended her practise into both sculpture and printmaking.
McLellan died in 2009 after a long battle against multiple sclerosis. She kept working until the last months of her life. A book about her work - Abigail McLellan by Matthew Sturgis - was published by Lund Humphries in 2012. Several examples of her work are held by the Fleming Collection of Scottish Art, London.
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Poetry In Motion
Southern Cross, 7 February 1996 -
A Month In The Arts
Harpers & Queen, 1 March 1996 -
First Look
Vogue, 1 December 1996 -
One Not to Miss
Elle Decoration, 1 January 1997 -
Abigail McLellan at Rebecca Hossack
The Week, 13 January 2007 -
The Stuff of Life
The Herald, 14 March 2009 -
Abigail McLellan
The Guardian, 19 October 2009 -
Abigail McLellan
Independent, 21 October 2009 -
Widower Breathes Life into Wife's Work
Scotland On Sunday, 8 November 2009 -
Creative Spirit
Homes & Interiors Scotland , 1 June 2010 -
A Fitting End to Abigail's Party
The Herald, 6 October 2012 -
Abigail McLellan at Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery
Galleries Magazine, 12 November 2012 -
Abigail McLellan
Studio International, 27 February 2014