Holding Hands As The Sun Falls

Says McClelland of this body of work, “I paint indulgently, dancing the brush all over the canvas as the bodies reveal themselves. I feel like I’m chasing something, grappling between the viscosity of the paint, the figures and the feeling I want them to convey. In turn, the bodies I paint are often found to be in struggles with the landscape around them – suspended, caught up in eddies, blurring into the sky and mulching into the ground. I use these physical sensations to make sense of visceral ones. Some of these works I view as one body unravelling, while others are gentle exchanges between gatherings. Sometimes, they collapse into each other; other times, they’re falling headfirst, arms flailing

“Inevitably, there is a lot of myself in these works. I am constantly drawing from things I have heard, seen and felt. The works are my way of navigating my own experiences and all the complicated sensations that arise from existing in a body- the restlessness under my skin. Amidst this, they are about how we relate to each other in relationships and as collectives and are an ode to the romance of it all.”