Born in Inverness in 1941 Will Maclean was a midshipman before attending Gray's School of Art, Aberdeen. In 1981 he started as a lecturer at the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, University of Dundee, becoming Professor of Fine Art in 1994. He was elected Royal Scottish Academician in 1991. In 2005 he was awarded an MBE for services to Education and the Arts. He lives and works in Tayport, Fife with his wife, the artist Marian Leven.
Maclean is a painter, printmaker and sculptor whose work is often related to the history and culture of the Scottish Highlands with particular reference to maritime themes. In 1991 Maclean produced ‘A Night of Islands’ at Peacock for Paragon Press, an impressive suite of ten colour etchings with aquatint inspired by Gaelic poetry and sketchbooks containing daily observations and experimental work.
Maclean produced a run of single colour etchings in the years after the suite was released from which this is one.
Speaking to Alan Woods in 1991 from the 'The Artist As Voyager' - New work by Richard Demarco & Will Maclean publication produced by Peacock, Maclean describes the print from 'A Night of Islands' as:
[Bard McIntyre] springs from "a poem I've always been fascinated with because it's so surreal.. it's very unusual to find it among Gaelic poems.. it reminds me of Bruegel and Hieronymous Bosch". This etching, which shows figures in a leather boat, is a reworking of 'Bard McIntyre's Box' of 1984, now in the Scottish Gallery of Modern Art.
Paper Size: 65 x 50 cm
Medium: Etching
Edition Size: 30
Year: 1992