JOHN MACDONALD

Voyeurism and the senses seep from Macdonald’s Mountain Park artwork

The Driftwood  by Andrea Rabinovitch  July 2004

Nestled in the cool green forest is a studio/gallery ablaze with colour and the voluptuousness of paint application.

Mountain Park studio/gallery, situated at 125 Teal Place, is the exclusive Salt Spring home for the work of John Macdonald and Patricia Murphy Macdonald. John’s work is shown in seven galleries across Canada and in New York City’s prestigious Forum Gallery and Patricia’s is shown in Toronto.

His large (56x66 inch) oils are a series of swim-suited people or nudes grouped together in relationships that question their intimacy. A sense of voyeurism through figures that watch objectifies their relationships and engages the viewer to realize they too are voyeurs. That the watchers are not always obvious makes the work even more interesting.

A fine painter, John’s work vibrates with energy while the concepts are once removed – a fascinating dichotomy. The physicality and sense of movement of the paint on canvas, and the sheer size of the work, plays against the very reserved notion of not joining in but watching other engaged in living.

Painting has the Smell of Success

The Georgia Straight December 2-9^th 1999

Passers-by might be surprised to find out that the luminous, otherworldly plants sprouting out from the darkness in Vancouver’s newest piece of public art are skunk cabbages. They’re the subject matter in a massive new commission called Midnight Lanterns – thought to be the largest oil painting in the city - that’s been hung in the lobby of the Bentall Centre’s building #3 (at Burrard and Dunsmuir streets).

Vancouver artist John Macdonald told the Straight he was inspired to paint the skunk cabbages when he saw them during a hike on Bowen Island last spring. He sees them as beacons of optimism: “The darkness (of the pond) is almost like the end of the 19^th century - a lot of paintings then were very dark. The cabbages represent a lot of hope as the old century gives way to the new one.” The he added: “I don’t think I’ve seen a painting of the particular subject matter before.”

Macdonald’s commission is unusual not only for its subject matter; seldom do local corporations fund such large pieces for their lobby spaces or give an artist such freedom. Macdonald said, “They’re very rare occurrences, and I think there could be a lot more public art in lobbies and public places. I think art can really inspire people, and I hope the piece of art I’ve done can do that, make people go “Wow, that’s really interesting.”

If the skunk cabbages wowed you, you can see more of Macdonald’s lushly coloured oil paintings in a show called Echoes at the Douglas Udell Gallery until December 8^th.

Vision Newsletter, Douglas Udell Gallery, Fall 1999

On Saturday, November 27^th in Vancouver we will open an exhibition of new work by John Macdonald. We are extremely proud to congratulate John upon his being awarded a major commission for a prominent building in downtown Vancouver. The work will consist of nine-four by four foot canvases that will hang in a grid measuring twelve by twelve feet.

John’s new work for the exhibition will continue to explore the Canadian preoccupation with the northern experience and the internalized emotional conflicts this environment may evoke. Through reflecting his northern experience, the paintings are essentially, fictional. Having been raised in northern British Columbia, the paintings are attempted personal reconciliations of the vast yet isolated quality of the western Canadian identity. In recent years he has attempted to simplify with less emphasis on art's theoretical concerns, seeking an instinctual response to this environment reinforced by the materiality of paint. The paintings overtly appropriate a wide assortment of influences and attempt to reflect, in an oblique manner, the time and place which they were created.

Up & Comers  Special report: BC’s Best and Brightest

Visual Arts, The Province, By Mike Roberts

Loose with the strokes is how John Macdonald describes his art.  The 34-year-old painter was born in Vancouver and raised in the northern town of Prince George where, at the age of 11, he decided he would one day be a serious and professional artist.

“We did a lot of family excursions when we were kids, so it’s kind of grassroots in a way,” says Macdonald, describing the lasting influence of BC’s northern vistas on his work.

Macdonald, who graduated at the top of his painting class at the Emily Carr College of Art and Design in 1987, is preparing over a dozen large canvases – some 12 by 6 feet – for a show at the Douglas Udell Gallery in Edmonton at the end of the month. He’s hanging a one-day preview at the Douglas Udell Gallery here in Vancouver on March 22.

After art school, Macdonald worked as a courtroom artist and a set painter for both the CBC and Walt Disney Studios.

The Vancouver Art Gallery’s Helen Yagi describes Macdonald’s immense murals, which deal with the wild beauty of the north-northwest, as “visually quite stunning.”

“I’m doing these very large, very viscerally applied paintings,” says Macdonald. “I’m trying to work consistently. In the past I’ve worked all over the place doing different types of things and come up with something a little more cohesive.”

Macdonald teaches oil painting at the new Vancouver Academy of the Arts. He and his wife, artist Patricia Murphy, also run a small company that specializes in interior paintings. They are responsible for the murals at Birks Jewellers in West Vancouver. 

But his real passion lies with the easels and oils in the small studio-garage behind their Dunbar home.

"It’s a little bit dingy, a little bit dark, not as big as I’d like to have but it’s working for me right now.” says Macdonald, who cites the neo-expressionists of the 1980’s as his primary influences.

I’m a little introverted in a certain way,” adds Macdonald. “And I’m not overly concerned with what is fashionable at the moment. I’m trying to go in a direction that is comfortable for me.”

Art Lurks Everywhere

The Free Press:  Prince George, BC

Art is everywhere, even in the images of a pulp mill and heavy-duty mechanic parts. John Macdonald paints a Prince George pulp mill, while Andy Schlitt sculpts heavy-duty parts into such figures as naked women. Their work is on display at the Prince George Art Gallery until November 20^th.

John Macdonald’s artwork is quite different from Schlitt’s. He draws on various themes and is always experimenting with ideas. “I think it’s important to have that stability in mind that you can actually focus on one thing and re-do it over and over again.”

Macdonald’s creativity and willingness to try new mediums has led to a wide variety of artwork. His talent in using melted dyed beeswax, oil, charcoal, and collage can be appreciated from varying perspectives.

“I have a certain amount of flexibility. I can go back and forth and do different things.” he says.  Macdonald began showing his work in 1983 and had built an impressive background of exhibition and commissioned works. After graduation from DP Todd Senior Secondary, he went on to study at Emily Carr College of Art and Design.

A painting major, Macdonald graduated in 1987 with the Merit award, the highest honour given by the college.

Between both artists, they offer art admirers flexibility and creativity and the opportunity to see the results of two very different artists.

Emotion on display, City Gallery features local artists

The Prince George Citizen, Paul Strickland

Two prominent Prince George artists reveal their views of the world and our role in it in the works on display at the Prince George Art Gallery until November 20^th. 

Andy Schlitt’s five pieces of industrial sculpture fashioned out of logging machinery and parts is on display on the lower floor, while the paintings and sketches of John Macdonald may be viewed on the upper level.

On the second floor the first painting to command your attention is the centrally displayed A place of worship, a view of a quiet Prince George pulp mill late in the afternoon on a winter’s day.

“I tried to have a title with a dual message,” Macdonald says. “It depends on what you bring to it, what you get out of it.”

The influence, he says, is a German Romantic painter, Kasper David Friedrich, who did images of churches or ruins in misty landscapes.

“I tried to find the current equivalent in a Canadian landscape. I think a sawmill or pulp mill would parallel the image of a church, even though the image itself, a mill, is a totally different place from a church.”

It may seem to be a bit of a jab, but it’s true in a lot of other ways. It’s the backbone of a small community, where they work and concentrate all their efforts.

“I tried to make it very spare, clean looking and quiet – and make it quite understated.”

To the left are three paintings, all of a bearded young man in a forest setting but each showing him in a different pose. The self-portraits, on display recently at Other Art Café, are entitled Echo, Instinct, and Depth.

In each the man is responding to an unexpected sound, and on a deeper level, the paintings in this series represent the uncertainty of man in his environment. “He hears the noise, but doesn’t know what made it or where it’s coming from. Maybe it’s a grizzly bear. Maybe it’s just a squirrel.

To the left of each of these three paintings is a band of solid colour, and to the left of those bands are images of a series of small spheres. The band of colour represents either the pure state of material things or a transitional phase.

The small spheres represent molecules, most importantly the molecules structure of DNA. “In these there is a precise world of science that makes sense to us. We learn best through the structures of science.”

All three are done in encaustic paint, which is made up of melted beeswax and pigment. It dries immediately after it is applied, like wax running down a candlestick, and so creates a sense of immediacy in paintings. It’s possible to paint the next brush stroke over it almost immediately, unlike over it almost immediately, unlike oils which, after a thick brush stroke, have to be left to dry before the artist can return to make additions to the painting.

Among Macdonald’s most recent works are three seemingly representational works on the right wall, painted in the tradition of the Dutch Masters. 

After getting his diploma from DP Todd senior secondary, Macdonald, studied painting at the Emily Carr College of Art and Design. He graduated in 1987.

But he has shown paintings since 1983. Macdonald, 30, now shows in Vancouver at the Douglas Udell Gallery on Sixth Avenue and Granville Street.

Painting is central to his life. “The important thing is to keep going and keep doing it,” Macdonald said. “The value is the ongoing effort to create and make new images to inspire people."

“Even though creating art is a self-contained thing, in a gallery people will see it and get some-thing out of it. I hope to see some kind of response from people.”

Artist leaves to tour China

Plus – The Arts,  September 1993

John Macdonald’s huge paintings now on display at Other Art Restaurant reveal his inner self. The former Prince George artist was the only youth among adults when he belonged to the Artists’ workshop.

“I was only 12 or 13. I don’t think there were any other kids in the art class,’ he recalled. “I was actually in with the adults. I spent my entire life doing art.”

As he completed his education, he moved southward to study at the Emily Carr College of Art and Design, taking a merit award on graduation.

He worked with CBC and Walt Disney Studios and did court room drawings while living in Vancouver. “I’ve done a lot of freelance work in Vancouver. I’m working on three or four commissions out of Whistler right now.”

Completing those is on hold: He intends to tour China by bicycle; painting, drawing, and photographing what he sees. The interview was the last before he left the country with his father-in-law and brother-in-law on a type of memorial trip, honouring his wife who died six months ago.

“We’re going to be cycling all over Beijing and looking at the sights.” He said he uses his camera only to capture an image. “I used to have a real phobia about using photographs. But in recent years that let up. I decided I don’t paint photographically, so I just use it as a reference.” He finds photos lack depth – the depth his feelings perceive about a scene that can be captured only by his pencil and brush. “You don’t get the feeling, the bug bites and you don’t get the cold weather.”

When drawing in Moore’s Meadow, while he still lived here, he looked up from his artwork to see a bear had joined him. They were both frightened of each other and mutually decided to go their separate ways.