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WE DREAM OF THE PACIFIC
BARRY MCGLASHAN -
This exhibition brings together luminous oil paintings by the acclaimed painter Barry McGlashan. Painting from a deep well of cultural references both literary and visual, McGlashan as a Scotsman hits at the very nerve of what it is to experience the grandeur of the Rocky Mountains in We Dream of the Pacific. “These shared cultural origins often manifest themselves in my work as images of solitary travelers, wandering on the edge of some new-found knowledge or frontier. A certain time and place seems to suit this thematic lure - so I find my world populated with prospectors, drifters, and the lost but hopeful: all dreaming of their Pacific,” McGlashan notes in his artist statement.
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References to the rich history and timeless appeal of the American West abound in subject matter, transporting the viewer a dreamy, visceral landscape. Whitman’s “All the pulses of the world’’ are present; mountains rise up, waterfalls flow countless vertical feet, nearly cowing their human counterparts where they feature. Human individuality rises to the task in the striped dress of the undeniable heroine of Tuolumne, the unmistakably chic sweater of Nostalgia, and the patched sweater hung to dry in The Elders. The work is undeniably peppered with a feeling of nostalgia, even when impossible to find a chronological timestamp. From a literal image of prospectors (The Elders) staring back from the canvas as though captured in a large-format, turn-of-the-nineteenth-century camera lens, to the Instagram-worthy capture of the woman and her dog at the beach (Nostalgia), or the cowboy, an Everyman, galloping through any moment in time, as captured in Chalk Pass, it is occasionally difficult to place the work in a specific century.
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Nostalgia, 2024Oil on canvas16 1/8 x 12 1/4 inches
Framed dimensions 17 x 13 inchesSold -
Gold Creek, 2024Oil on canvas16 1/8 x 12 1/4 inches
Framed dimensions 17 x 13 inches -
Appaloosa, 2024Oil on canvas16 1/8 x 12 1/4 inches
Framed dimensions 17 x 13 inchesSold
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Creeping Murmur, 2023Oil on paper laid on panel12 1/4 x 8 1/8 inches
Framed dimensions 13 x 8 3/4 inches -
The Shore, 2023Oil on paper over panel12 1/4 x 8 1/8 inches
Framed dimensions 13 x 8 3/4 inchesSold -
Drifters, 2024Oil on paper over panel12 1/4 x 8 1/8 inches
Framed dimensions 13 x 8 3/4 inches
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According to McGlashan, “Painting is a learnt language - something shared throughout history that allows you to talk to the past and the future at the same time. It is far more than the sum of its parts. So in terms of making, the paintings coalesce through a well-practiced form of exploration and finding, perhaps why I find prospecting to be such an eternal subject - we’re all just trying to find something of value in all that dirt.” McGlashan paints in a style all his own, in richly layered veils of pigment, the paint quality akin to a dreamy, neo-impressionist handling of washes. But it is the landscape itself, the dreamy awe he is able to convey so deftly, that holds powerful potency in these works. McGlashan continues, “The landscape becomes very important to me - not only as the setting for these events but also in the hope of evoking an innate sense of familiarity with the viewer.”
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Mankato, 2024Oil on paper over panel12 1/4 x 8 1/8 inches
Framed dimensions 13 x 8 3/4 inchesSold -
The Fall, 2024Oil and pencil on paper over panel12 1/4 x 8 1/8 inches
Framed dimensions 13 x 8 3/4 inchesSold -
Hog of The Forsaken, 2023Oil on paper over panel12 1/4 x 8 1/8 inches
Framed dimensions 13 x 8 3/4 inchesSold
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Chalk Pass, 2024Oil, paper and varnish on panel8 1/2 x 11 3/4 inches
Framed dimensions 9 1/4 x 12 3/4 inchesSold -
Pale Night, 2024Oil and pencil on paper over panel8 1/8 x 12 inches
Framed dimensions 8 3/4 x 12 3/4 inchesSold -
Red Night, 2023Oil and pencil on paper over panel8 1/8 x 11 5/8 inches
Framed dimensions 8 3/4 x 12 1/4 inches
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High Plains, 2023Oil, paper and varnish on panel8 1/2 x 11 3/4 inches
Framed dimensions 9 1/4 x 12 3/4 inchesSold -
Hobo's Lullaby, 2021Oil, paper and varnish on panel8 1/2 x 11 3/4 inches
Framed dimensions 9 1/4 x 12 3/4 inches -
The Wicked Flee, 2021Oil, paper and varnish on panel8 1/2 x 11 3/4 inches
Framed dimensions 9 1/4 x 12 3/4 inchesSold
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WE DREAM OF THE PACIFIC: BARRY MCGLASHAN
Past viewing_room