Viewing Room
Welcome to the Castle Gallery Viewing Rooms where you will find highlights from our exhibitions - past and present - focussing on key works, inspirational ideas and telling the stories behind the show. Best viewed on a desktop browser.
JENNY MCLAREN
6th - 28th June 2025
'Ex Libris'
Paintings on repurposed vintage cloth bound books and old maps.
'Ex Libris'
Paintings on repurposed vintage cloth bound books and old maps.
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Quiraing, Isle of Skye, archival print of map on board, acrylic ink, coloured pencil and acrylic spray varnish, 20 x 20cm
The paintings in this exhibition – many inspired by Assynt, Skye and the Hebrides – are of places that Jenny McLaren has come to know well. They are of imagined explorations into these landscapes, punctuated with nature studies and the wildlife encountered there.
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Bullfinch Pair, vintage book cover, acrylic ink and acrylic spray varnish, 16 x 26.5cm
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Postcard from Uist, vintage book cover, acrylic ink and acrylic spray varnish, 10.5 x 16cm
“There are many places that I visit and come to know well that mean something to me. I carry them within me and make paintings about being there and the memories those special places hold. Remoteness, mountains and an expanse of water are the visual ingredients I crave so I make regular research trips to the Highlands and Islands from Edinburgh where I now live.”
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Hebridean Overture, collaged map and paper elements on wood panel, acrylic paint, acrylic ink, coloured pencil, graphite pencil and acrylic spray varnish, 61 x 61cm
“In the same way that I often paint on old maps, I repurpose vintage cloth bound books as my canvas. I begin by handling the book and flicking through photographs and sketchbooks of recent trips to find a suitable pairing. Something in the patina and colour of a well-thumbed book will evoke a memory of place, be it the colour of a lichen or the hue of mountains in the distance. Occasionally the title of a book will dictate the chosen motif. The book as an object brings a depth of human connection and history into the painting and becomes a vessel containing my expanding relationship with landscape. As I made the work for “Ex Libris” I began to think of it as a personal library of place that will continue to grow beyond the exhibition."
Travelling by Sea, vintage book cover, acrylic ink and acrylic spray varnish, 14 x 21.5cm - Rocky Shore, vintage book covers, acrylic ink, graphite pencil and acrylic spray varnish, 21 x 28.5cm
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Merveille du Jour, vintage book cover, acrylic ink, acrylic paint and acrylic spray varnish, 22 x 13.5cm
Technique
“I find the books and maps I use in second hand bookstores, charity shops and online marketplaces and sometimes I’m gifted them by friends. I always check for “Ex Libris” labels and signatures and have begun to keep a folder to document them. The books are prepared for painting the same way as maps, minus the tricky stage of glueing maps onto wooden panels. I cut the covers from the book using a scalpel and keep the text pages for collage and other projects. I use a mixture of clear gesso primer to prepare the surface of the book cover, occasionally going straight to painting if the texture and absorbency of the cloth cover isn’t an issue. I can tell within a couple of brushstrokes if it will work or not. When the painting is complete, I use acrylic spray varnish which has added UV protection to seal the front and back. As the book covers are old and some of the edges are delicate, I use deep frames with non- reflective glass to protect them. I paint mainly with acrylic inks with touches of acrylic paint or gouache. I use a lot of blues- mixtures of indigo, turquoise and Payne’s grey contrasting with the warmth of burnt umber and raw sienna. The acrylic ink allows me to work in layers and modify the colours as I paint. It also has the translucency to allow the map or pattern of a book cover to show through the pigment which can be crucial to the aesthetic of the finished work." |
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The Goldcrest, vintage book cover, acrylic ink, acrylic paint and acrylic spray varnish, 18.5 x 25.5cm
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Loch Eigheach, near Rannoch Station, vintage map on wood panel, acrylic ink, acrylic paint, watercolour and acrylic spray varnish, 25.5 x 51cm
For this exhibition Jenny Mclaren’s paintings will be complemented with hand-blown glass inspired by fungi and the forest floor by Catriona MacKenzie and glass bead jewellery reflecting the changing seasons of the Cairngorms by Sally Nowell.
Hand-blown glass by Catriona MacKenzie - Glass bead jewellery by Sally Nowell