August 20 – October 20, 1998
The themes that are central to the development of this Scottish artists work are:
• fishermen, fishing and the life of the fishing communities
• sailors and their voyages of exploration and discovery
• the tragedy of the dispossessed of the Highlands, and their forced passage to the new world.
Many of the dispossessed arrived in Canada on Cholera ships. Of those who survived, some made their way across Canada and down into North Dakota where they settled. Maclean’s small box constructions provide a window into the experience of Highland life, changing the everyday into the poetic. The son of the Harbor Master at Inverness, Maclean was a midshipman and a herring fisherman for years. His poor eyesight forced him to give up his life on the sea to become an artist, to become the recorder of the tragedy of the Scottish Highlands.
