Comments on: Jock McFadyen, Landscape Painter

By: Anne Wallace

Anne Wallace — Sat, 10 Mar 2018 07:59:42 +0000

Fantastic. I was looking up Jock to see if maybe he’d been included in the current show at Tate Britain, “all too human”. He should have been. He was one of my tutors st the Slade many moons ago, and was the Real McCoy. His paintings evoke London more than any other artist I think.

By: ricky houston

ricky houston — Fri, 20 Jun 2014 09:34:26 +0000

Jock McFadyen’s paintings and prints give voice to the poorer people, a voice not heard much in world of professional art. He focusses on the areas where life is at the edge, figures in wastelands, those areas in cities, gap sites, wild grass and rubbish next to the industrial parts of town, the figures desperately fighting their battle to survive.The buildings are often places of entertainment, the old dance halls, cinemas, billiard halls. The buildings symbolise the people who went or go in them, in a painterly sense to me they are the people who went in them.
There is a painting of an old concrete war time gun emplacement on Cramond Island, Edinburgh, the graffiti on it showing the marks left by the young guys and girls from the nearby Muirhouse housing scheme who went out there sowing their wild oats, letting the world know that they have been there by leaving their graffiti. There are no figures yet the building itself is like a figure of a whole strata of society full of the personalities screaming up from the ground.
Like Sickert he paints the “grubby” reality of human life, stripped of designer clothed glamour and like Goya conjures up the world and all our hopes and desires restricted as they are by our particular circumstances.
Jock McFadyen shows a warm empathy with the people he portrays. I haven’t seen the show After Walter, but I have seen every show he has had in Edinburgh going back decades, he always excites and it would be great if the show came to Edinburgh.
Some famous person said something like, “many men live lives of quiet desperation” Jock McFadyen paints many of those lives and many of those who are not so quiet as well.

By: Nicholas Sack

Nicholas Sack — Sat, 19 Jan 2013 23:46:13 +0000

Interesting article. I had the pleasure of seeing McFadyen’s vast East London paintings a couple of years ago in the rarefied atmosphere of the 30th floor of an office tower at Canary Wharf. And in October 2012 at the Fleming Collection in Mayfair he gave a fascinating talk about his retrospective show, explaining his shifts in style and oscillating fortunes through the decades. McFadyen has recently been elected to the Royal Academy. Some of his East End paintings, notably of a derelict Rex cinema in Stratford, are like Edward Hopper on crack.

By: Rowena Macdonald

Rowena Macdonald — Mon, 17 Dec 2012 15:19:26 +0000

Wonderful paintings. Is this the same guy that did a painting of a tarty looking woman in a rough looking street with crisp packets flying around? I think it was from the 80s. My dad has an art transport company (C’art Art Transport based in Wolverhampton) and I remember he transported it somewhere but it was in his store for a bit. I might be getting confused though. Anyway, these landscapes are great. I must go to the exhibition.

By: Juliet Wrightson

Juliet Wrightson — Sun, 02 Dec 2012 11:18:08 +0000

Talking to an old friend who was at Chelsea about this he said “I wonder if he still likes white shoes!”

By: andrea

andrea — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 19:36:49 +0000

Sipping his coffee with relish? That sounds horrible! 🙂

By: jane osullivan

jane osullivan — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 11:16:26 +0000

genius Jock , pure genius , ,new show looks superb in its setting , best of luck with it and lucky people who get to see it !
thanks for sharing Jocks work here Gentle.

By: joan

joan — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 10:03:37 +0000

There is a painting by Jock of Great Junction Street, Leith focussing on the Bingo Hall there. I have only to look at that painting to be transported back to four years of living in Leith walking those streets, always either pregnant or pushing a buggy or both. I can feel the exact feelings I felt at that time – difficult as I was a long way from friends, family and anything familiar. Love seeing his paintings here of Beckton – as my mum has lived there for 30 years.

By: Greg Tingey

Greg Tingey — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 07:42:27 +0000

I find the picture, with painter & greyhound of Walthamstow Stadium particularly poignant – about a mile-&-a-half from here …
The local corrupt council have given in & “allowed” housing development on the site, against much local protest.

By: Prakash Sootarsing

Prakash Sootarsing — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 07:19:19 +0000

All are fantastic, “Looking West” edges in front of the rest for me. Apocalyptic skies indeed.
Please let us know of Mr McFadyen’s future exhibitions.