There are many surprising things about John McLean’s paintings, and one of them is the way they get started. It’s an early, almost ritualistic start to each day in the studio, which is located on the Taranaki Coast where the artist has lived with his wife for 37 years. Coffee features, as does methodically laying out brushes and paint. But from there on, things get a lot more spontaneous because John throws and splatters watered down paint onto the canvas, watches it pool and collect then waits for forms, faces and characters to emerge.
All the paintings in his current exhibition have started this way, with John following the lead of the random shapes. Traces of the first layer of splattered paint remain on parts of the canvases.
“It’s like I’m saying to the canvas ‘Who are you? I have no idea who you are, so tell me,’” he says. “Art making is a dance. Sometimes it is about being led and sometimes you are the one leading.”
It’s the opposite approach to how he used to work. Then, he could often be found drawing with scientific intensity the reflections of light on water, shadows on the body, trees, leaves and even his own obliging hens.
His change of direction coincided with a strong interest in Carl Jung and Joseph Campbell and their theories of archetypes and symbols. But those years of close observation of nature mean that he can now unfold his detailed narratives entirely from his imagination.
Early on in this new, intuitive process, a powerful new story took hold – that of The Farmer, the Farmer’s Wife, and assorted other characters. John decided to follow the lead and, 22 paintings later, and having integrated writing with painting, he is bringing out a book called ‘The Farmer’s Wife and the Farmer – A New Zealand Odyssey in Painting’, due out mid year.
“The Farmer is about containment, holding things in with fences and gates,” says John. What happens when his wife is the creature that flees is shown in the painting called ‘Abandoned Farmer cooling his heels’ (left image). Meanwhile the Wife is having her own adventures and discoveries.
Another rich vein has been his childhood in Mt Maunganui and encounters with local identity Springheel Jack who would regularly appear outside John’s school, always shirtless under a battered pinstripe suit, with a sack of goodies for the children. Recognising this would be unthinkable nowadays, John has fond memories of Jack handing him a seagull skull and other treasures, a moment that’s depicted in another painting (right image).
He and his wife are regenerating native bush on their land, which includes estuary and wetlands. His Hunter and Fisherman characters draw on his past experiences in various jobs.
“The Hunter is an observer, he has a rational process of stalking and trying to find prey, but out in a boat, the Fisherman is going beneath the surface into the intuitive domain.”
For John, painting and his life in rural Taranaki are all about bringing these two realms into harmony.
Showing at Aratoi: 'John McLean - A Gathering', until 10 May; 'Hong Kong Song' - Photographs by Madeleine Slavick, until 10 May; 'Near Neighbours’ - New Zealand and Australian printmaking, until 10 May. Events: Near Neighbours Print Demonstration, Sun 22 Feb, 1.30-2.30pm; Open Afternoon at New Zealand Pacific Studio, Mt Bruce, Sun 22 Feb - meet international artists in residence, with talk and reading at 2.3pm.
Wairarapa Museum of Art and History