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VIEW IN MY ROOM

A Room With A View Without Print

John McDonald

United Kingdom

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About The Artwork

A Room With A View Without is an original painting by Derbyshire based Scottish Artist John McDonald. The painting was created following a visit to the Isle of Harris in the Outer Hebrides, the Western Isles of Scotland. Measuring 60 by 90 cm A Room With A View Without is painted in artist's quality acrylic paints on high quality stretched cotton canvas. The painting is ready to hang, and is varnished to protect from dust and light-fading. The artist was touched and affected by the prevalence of abandoned crofts in the Outer Hebrides: former Scottish Island homesteads. These beautiful little buildings are slowly decaying, being reclaimed by the land and the wild highland weather, and yet are so full of memories. The ruins tell the stories of past lives, and whisper the secrets of the families who lived there, with all kinds of objects and possessions remaining: keys, clocks, photo frames, furnishings, even a stove top kettle. Inspired by the work of John Maher, fine art photographer, and former Buzzcock's drummer, the painting is based on an image from Maher's Nobody's Home series. The painting is produced with the kind permission of Mr Maher. The Western Isles are a long way from Mr McDonald's origins, a very different Scotland from the Glasgow tenement, where the artist was born in the 1960s. This series is not about a lament for a romantic view of lost Scottish heritage. the human objects remaining in the abandoned crofts, relate to another kind of loss; the alienation and surreal mind-state of profound hearing loss, where things cease to be familiar through the absence of their sounds. This painting is a quirky and strangely cheerful depiction of this kind of loss and adaptation. An outsider artist whose practice is the key to survival and relationship following 17 years of profound deafness, John's work declares: I'VE COME THROUGH MY DARK, DARK, DARK PERIOD AND IT'S MY PAINTING THAT'S BRINGING ME LIGHT, LIGHT, LIGHT

Details & Dimensions

Print:Giclee on Fine Art Paper

Size:12 W x 8 H x 0.1 D in

Size with Frame:17.25 W x 13.25 H x 1.2 D in

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Delivery Time:Typically 5-7 business days for domestic shipments, 10-14 business days for international shipments.

Born in a Glasgow tenement in a sectarian district, I left school with a piece of paper (no certificates) saying that I was deaf and would be best employed in a noisy environment as everyone would be similarly disadvantaged. Born under the image of Christ of St John of the Cross by Salvador Dali. This huge painting in Kelvingrove art gallery seems to have an impact on me becoming an Artist in my 50s. Can I say that I spent years of my childhood evading gallery custodians and sliding along the polished floor under this painting? Unknown to me at the time, this painting by Dali, with its dynamic perspective and monumental scale, planted the seed for a love of art, and awakened the soul of this deaf kid from Drumchapel. When I first picked up a piece of charcoal as an adult and started to draw, it was a version of Dali's Christ of St John of the Cross which I created. Following a decade working in noisy environments, my real education began: in a Merseyside Unemployed Resource Centre. Training to become a Welfare Rights Officer I became hungry for education. In becoming mentally astute in the law, politics, and history that inform welfare and union work, I found, with naivety, myself. My fine art practice is informed by the dual and equal passions of my life: a passion for creative arts, and passionate campaigning for social justice. I have always been involved in the arts, through theatre, film, directing, and spoken word performance. For a long time I needed to shout, and I used performance to shout publically, about abuses and inequality I witnessed in mainstream services, to shout out for social justice, and educate on behalf of silent minorities. I am profoundly deaf and found that being involved in the arts was a way of being included. I started painting about 6 years ago on an old van that had been converted as a camper, just a plain white van that became a giant 3D canvas. I was conscious of passers by either watching or commenting, both were a challenge because of deafness but it was this situation that allowed me to be more included in my community and society in general. People liked my work and over a period of years as the van canvas was filled so was I, with confidence and more involvement with passers by, some who became friends. My painting is both the catalyst and the fruition of a personal journey towards peace.

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