Abigail McLellan

This article is about the Scottish artist. For the girl of the same name killed in Scotland, see Dunblane massacre.

Abigail McLellan
Born(1969-07-11)11 July 1969
Middlesbrough, England
Died11 October 2009(2009-10-11) (aged 40)
NationalityScottish
Alma materGlasgow School of Art,
Cincinnati University
Known forpainting
PartnerAlasdair Wallace

Abigail McLellan (11 July 1969 – 11 October 2009) was a Scottish artist. She primarily showed her work at the Rebecca Hossack Gallery and the Glasgow Print Studio.[1]

Biography

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McLellan was born in Middlesbrough, where her father was an engineer with ICI, but her family moved to Dumfries when she was 12 years old.[2] McLellan had two older sisters.[3]

McLellan trained at the Glasgow School of Art.[4] In 1987, she also attended Cincinnati University on a scholarship. Later, she attended the Cite Internationale de arts studios in Paris, France.[2] She exhibited at the National Portrait Exhibition at the Royal Scottish Academy.[2]

In 1998, McLellan began to show signs of health issues while in Japan.[1] She was later diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.[1] Despite the diagnosis, McLellan insisted on living her life in a similar manner to before she became ill: she walked up four flights of stairs to her studio for as long as she was able.[1] When she could no longer stand, she worked in her studio from a wheelchair.[1]

She was known for still-life paintings consisting of "pared-down, almost abstracted, images of single plants, flowers, and other distinct items, set against richly-worked backgrounds of saturated colour"[3] and portraits, both bearing the strong influence of Japanese art.[4] Scottish art traditions were also an important influence on her work.[5] The process of creating her art involved a "detailed process" of building up multiple layers of acrylic paint on canvas.[1]

McLellan was considered a hard worker, and had been in her studio working the day that she had to be taken into hospital for the last time. She died there a week later.[1]

McLellan met her partner, painter Alasdair Wallace, at the Glasgow School of Art. After being together for eighteen years,[6] they married in 2009.[3] She died aged 40 the same year from complications of multiple sclerosis.

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g "Abigail McLellan, Scottish Artist". The Scotsman. 22 October 2009. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
  2. ^ a b c "Biography". Abigail McLellan. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
  3. ^ a b c Matthew Sturgis Obituary: Abigail McLellan, The Independent, 21 October 2009
  4. ^ a b Rebecca Hossack Obituary: Abigail McLellan, The Guardian, 18 October 2009
  5. ^ "Abigail McLellan". Ashgate. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
  6. ^ "Abigail McLellan and Alasdair Wallace". Open Eye Gallery. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
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