In The Sunroom: Body + Self

On display from March 5 to April 23, 2020 in The Sunroom at Halifax Central Library. 

"In this series exploring self-reflection using portraiture and the psychological properties of colour, my paintings provide a framework for understanding emotion" says artist, Alice MacLean. "Exploring emotional states and uncertainty, the visual representation of the self provides the sense of the internal physiological condition and sensation of the body. This work is part of an ongoing investigation which aims to elaborate on a model of emotion in self-portraiture and figurative art, and explores how emotional content is generated by internal and external experiences. Overall, the artwork displayed here provides a unified view of self-related processing relevant to emotional awareness."

Alice invites "... viewers to reflect on the palette, textures, and fluidity of the work as it may connect to the landscape that can be viewed from the Sunroom; the harbour scenery, and palette found in nature."

About the artist

Alice MacLean, studied visual art at NSCAD University. She has participated in the Visual Arts Nova Scotia (VANS) Mentorship Program (2015/16), and has attended residencies and Exhibition opportunities in Scotland (2014/15), as well as various locations in Ontario including Toronto Island (2016), Prince Edward County (2017) and Pelee Island (2018). Since returning to Halifax Alice has participated in ‘Ground Rules’ (2019), a group residency with sixteen Nova Scotia-based artists, which will culminate in a travelling exhibition from Cape Breton to Halifax this spring. Alice has been teaching watercolour painting in elementary schools through the VANS PAINTS program, and has been teaching a new class through NSCAD Extended Studies on the topic of large-scale watercolour. 

Alice has been reconnecting herself to the community of Halifax by working from her studio space through Eyelevel Gallery. Nova Scotia has been inspiring her artistic practice directly, with new developments in her practice including foraging in the landscape to create pigments for her paintings