82 × 60 in
in
cm
$8,500
And the Trees Like Candles depicts a vintage yellow Opel bathed in sunlight within a dreamlike clearing surrounded by towering trees. Vibrant flowers carpeting the forest floor on which the car sits appear ready to float away. The painting is a study in light and dark, warm and cool, solid and ethereal, stillness and a sense of motion. Its large scale adds to the painting’s presence.
This work is part of McClelland’s exploration into creating “no places” – places that connect to the search for utopia, for the “good place” that is always elusive. This search reflects a yearning for perfect happiness and for finding the fragility of the paradise we seek. “No places” are the result of memory, imagination, and multiple sources that emerge through McClelland’s accumulation and layering of images and the unexpected outcomes of translating this in paint. These places are imagined and are from everywhere and nowhere at once.
| Medium | Painting |
| Signature | Signed |
| Frame | Unframed |
| Condition | Excellent |
| Seller | Artist |
| Location | Victoria, Canada |
| Provenance | Artist |
Originally from Quebec, Neil McClelland divides his time between his home and studio in Edmonton, Alberta and Victoria, BC where he teaches visual arts part-time at the University of Victoria, Thompson Rivers University, and the Vancouver Island School of Art.
McClelland received his MFA from the University of Victoria in 2014, and he has had solo and group exhibitions across Canada. He is a 2016 and 2020 grantee of the internationally prestigious Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation, and his paintings are in notable collections such as the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and the Colart Collection.
CV
2018 Master of Arts-Integrated Studies, Athabasca University, AB
2014 Master of Fine Arts, Visual Arts, Painting, University of Victoria, BC
2000 Undergraduate studies, Fine Arts, University of Alberta, AB
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS (SOLO)
2024 Bright Black Starry Sunny Night, Esplanade Arts and Heritage Centre, Medicine Hat
2023 Bright Black Starry Sunny Night, Galerie Cité, Edmonton, AB
2023 Bright Black Starry Sunny Night. Gibsons Public Art Gallery, Gibsons, BC
2022 Bright Black Starry Sunny Night. Xchanges Gallery, Victoria, BC (artist talk)
2022 Essential Travel. Slide Room Gallery, Victoria, BC (artist talk)
2022 Darkness Stars. Ministry of Casual Living, Window Gallery, Victoria, BC
2020 Into This Mirror World. Winchester Galleries, Victoria, BC (artist talk)
2020 Our Glass Paradise Revisited. Chapel Gallery, Victoria, BC (artist talk)
2019 Naps & Insomnias. Slide Room Gallery, Victoria, BC
2019 The Light Earth. Ministry of Casual Living, Window Gallery, Victoria, BC
2018 Our Glass Paradise. Winchester Galleries, Victoria, BC
2017 Now Here / Nowhere. Wallack Galleries, Ottawa, ON (artist talk)
2017 The Perfect Nowhere, Comox Valley Art Gallery, Courtenay, BC (catalogue, artist talks)
2017 Everything is Being Perfected. Deluge Contemporary Art, Victoria, BC
2015 Apperception. Vernon Public Art Gallery, Vernon, BC (catalogue & artist talk)
2015 Bathers. Xchanges Gallery, Victoria, BC (artist talk)
2012 Variations on Five Photographs. Kaasa Gallery, Edmonton, AB
2012 Family Stories. EPCOR Centre for the Performing Arts Window Galleries, Calgary, AB
2010 If You Can’t Stop, Smile as You Go By. Harcourt House Artist Run Centre, Edmonton
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2023 No Fear. Harcourt House Artist Run Centre, Edmonton, AB
2021 Black and White. The Collector’s Gallery of Art, Calgary, AB
2021 All for Water. Two Rivers Gallery, Prince George, BC
2021 3-D Virtual Exhibition. Winchester Galleries, Victoria, BC
2020 PAINTING 2020. John B. Aird Gallery, Toronto, ON (catalogue)
2020 Local Compositions. Winchester Galleries, Victoria, BC
2019 shape/colour/form. Winchester Galleries, Victoria, BC
2019 Commute: A Bus Shelter Art Exhibition, Victoria, BC
2017 Five. Winchester Galleries, Victoria, BC
2016 The Imaginary Machine. Slide Room Gallery, Victoria, BC (catalogue & artist talk)
2015 Realities Follies. Open Space Arts Society, Victoria, BC (catalogue & discussion panel)
2015 New Perceptions. Winchester Galleries Modern, Victoria, BC
2014 Feral. Pop-up show, Victoria, BC (catalogue)
2014 Microwave. Fifty-Fifty Arts Collective, Victoria, BC
2014 Vues de la ville. Beaux-arts des Amériques, Montreal, PQ
2012 Conversations. Common Sense Gallery, Edmonton, AB
2011 Ten to the Power of 10. The Jackson Power Gallery, Edmonton, AB
2011 Energize. Visual Arts Alberta Gallery, Edmonton, AB
2009 Double Take. Art Gallery of St. Albert, St. Albert, AB
2008 Double Take. (trio) The Fringe Gallery, Edmonton, AB
ART TEACHING/ PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
2023- Open Learning Faculty Member, Thompson Rivers University
2014- Instructor, Vancouver Island School of Art, Victoria, BC
2012- Sessional, Faculty of Fine Arts, Visual Arts, University of Victoria, BC
2018 Juror, BC Arts Council, Visual Arts Scholarships
2010-13 Visual Arts Editor, Journal of Integrated Studies, Athabasca University
2010 Juror, Harcourt House Artist Run Centre, Edmonton, AB
2009-12 Art Instructor, Harcourt House Artist Run Centre, Edmonton, AB
2009-12 Art Instructor, drop-in workshops, NorQuest College, Edmonton, AB
2009-10 Artist in Residence, Harcourt House Artist Run Centre, Edmonton, AB
2008-09 Art Educator, Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton, AB
GRANTS/AWARDS
2016 & 2020 Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS/REVIEWS
2023 CoastReporter (14 May), “Trio of artists shape unexpected harmonies at GPAG” M. Gurney
2021 Not Real Art Interview: Q+Art: Place, Space, and Memory Merge in Neil McClelland’s Haunting Landscape Paintings, Morgan Laurens
2020 Victoria Arts Council. Until Magazine. Issue 4: Home.
2020 Focus Magazine (March/April), “Our Glass Paradise Revisited,” Kate Cino
2018 Painting Utopia and Dystopia: An Arts-based and Autoethnographic Inquiry. Final Project, Master of Arts – Integrated Studies, Athabasca University. Neil McClelland
2017 Times Colonist (12 Feb), “Artist chronicles a failing ‘perfect society,’” Robert Amos
2017 exhibit-v (4 Feb),” Neil McClelland at Deluge Contemporary Art,” Philip Willey
2017 Extracting Narratives. Exhibition Catalogue, Comox Valley Art Gallery
2016 The Imaginary Machine. Exhibition Catalogue, Slide Room Gallery, Victoria, BC
2015 Neil McClelland: Apperception. Exhibition catalogue, Vernon Public Art Gallery.
2015 Realities Follies. Exhibition catalogue, Open Space Arts Society.
2014 Musings on Feral with Collected Speech, catalogue by Toby Lawrence
2014 In Your Eyes: MFA Exhibition Catalogue with an essay by Michelle Jacques
2012 Galleries West 11.1. “Neil McClelland: Family Stories,” Jill Sawyer
2011 Galleries West 10.1. “Neil McClelland: Smile as you go by,” Ross Bradley
2010 Prairie Artsters.com, “If You Can’t Stop, Smile As You Go By,” Amy Fung
2008 Prairie Artsters.com “Double Take, Group Show, Fringe Gallery,” Amy Fung
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