Ann McCay transforms the familiar through colour, light and a strong sense of narrative. In By the River, she turns her attention to the River Severn, a landscape shared by the artist, the gallery and the town.
Ann McCay is a British painter whose work is exhibited by galleries throughout the UK. Her paintings are immediately recognisable for their heightened colour, theatrical sense of space and strong narrative quality. Familiar settings are transformed into something more curious and unexpected, inviting the viewer to imagine the stories held within them.
By the River brings together fifteen new paintings and places McCay’s distinctive practice firmly at the centre of the exhibition. For this collection, she has turned her attention to the River Severn at Frankwell, Shrewsbury.
Living and working in Shropshire gives the collection a particularly personal connection. This is a stretch of river familiar to both the artist and the gallery, but these paintings are not intended as straightforward records of the landscape. Seen through McCay’s imagination, recognisable places shift through colour, light and carefully constructed compositions to become unmistakably her own.
The result is an exhibition that celebrates an established British artist while also acknowledging the special relationship between the artist, the gallery and the landscape immediately around us.
