Ewan McClure: Inside and Out Catalogue
Published by The Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh, 2022
Texts by Ewan McClure and Tommy Zyw
Photography by Euan Adamson
Designed by James Brook
ISBN 978 1 912900 50 3
190 x 240 mm | 80 pages | Printed by Pureprint on White Silk paper 170 gsm, with matt laminated paper cover printed on White Silk 350 gsm
This is Ewan McClure: Inside and Out, a catalogue that I designed for the artist’s exhibition at The Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh from 5 to 28 May 2022. The artist lives and works in Kirkcudbright, known as the ‘artists’ town’ – while I was working on this catalogue, I had a short holiday there, witnessing at first-hand some of the views that have inspired the artist. The image on the front cover is a detail of Kirkcudbright, Summer, a painting from 2021, which is very typical of the works in this exhibition.
As well as views of Kirkcudbright, the exhibition includes still-lives alongside paintings of the artist’s travels in Sweden. The final section of the catalogue, Veiled Light, really attracted my interest: these experimental departures for the artist are painted on various panel surfaces with patterns of defects, such as cork tiles and mosaics of jigsaw puzzle pieces. For the back cover, I selected one of these paintings Light and Moisture, a landscape painted on polyester mesh, as a foil to the more traditional painting on the front cover. The mesh-like fabric of the painting has a translucency which allows for a design in the space behind to show through the matrix of holes, creating an almost 3-D effect which, although difficult to reproduce in print, I hope is revealed in this close-up cover detail.
Tommy Zyw, Director, The Scottish Gallery: I have had the pleasure to work on several exhibition catalogues with James Brook. James understands the individual requirements of the artist, gallery and audience. He has an in-depth knowledge of design and printing. This he combines with creative flair and a practical and hardworking approach.