Miriam McClay

I trained at Falmouth School of Art and Design where I gained a BA (Hons) in Fine Art. A year later I achieved a Master’s Degree in Fine Art Printmaking from Chelsea College of Art and Design, London. My PGCE at Middlesex University led me into a full-time teaching role. I have now been teaching for 24 years and although education faces many challenges, I consider myself lucky to be surrounded with creativity and colour every day. Alongside my position in education I have always kept up my own art practice.

Just over a year ago my beloved dad passed away and the impact on my life has been enormous. It became important to me to find new ways to express the storm of emotions I was experiencing and continue to experience. Abstraction seemed to be the best fit for this and hence a move away from my focus on expressive landscapes. I created a body of work that explored the different stages of grief, but all the time celebratory and vibrant in colour, expressing my absolute love for my dad. This work opened up countless creative opportunities for me and abstract painting has since been my focus; capturing emotion within gestural marks and colour.
My working process is intuitive and playful; experimentation is an essential element in creating my paintings. Each painting must be about testing out new ideas and techniques and never a repeat of the last; adding and scraping back paint through an infinite combination of options to achieve something quite new and distinct from the starting point. Colours, marks and movement change over time and so the paintings reflect that in their layering; a documentation of the conversation I have with them. I hope you enjoy the work.

Solo exhibitions:

Taurus Crafts, Lydney 2012

Taurus Crafts, Lydney 2017

Raft Gallery, Newent 2013

Group exhibitions:

Oriel Jones, Monmouth 2013

Raft Gallery, Newent and Monmouth 2014 – 15

New Leaf Gallery, Monmouth 2014

The Applestore Gallery, Hereford 2012 – present

Creates Gallery, Monmouth – August/Sept 2017

JGallery, Moulton, Northampton – August 2018

The Applestore Gallery, Hereford, Christmas Delights, December 2018

Creates Gallery, Monmouth – Spring Exhibition March – May 2019