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Painter based in Glasgow
Freelands Studio Fellow 2023/24
at University of Brighton
@freelandsfoundation⁠

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‘Kassiopi’, 2026
Oil on canvas
31 x 25.4 cm

From a series of small works I’ve been developing over the past few months.

Each painting is imbued with a sense of landscape or place - a longing to reconnect with, or be in, nature. They aren’t representations of actual locations as such, but aim to capture the feeling of a place I remember or imagine going to.

I’ve found it useful to take a break from sharing on ig for a bit. It’s been good to take the pressure off and focus on what we’re really meant to be doing - painting and drawing. by @michaeljohnclarence

I got my first shared studio @glasgowindependentstudio in 2018, before getting my own space a couple of years later. I can’t express enough the importance of @glasgowindependentstudio in providing affordable studio spaces to those on low or non-existent incomes.

Similarly, @glasgowprojectroom provides a free, high quality exhibition space for artists to show work at early career stage, providing an important stepping stone for graduates or those who’ve spent a bit longer working out what type of artist they might be. GPR is a developmental space, that encourages experimentation without restriction or commercial angle. There is no way I would have been able to move my practice forward without the kindness and support of both GIS and GPR.

I found myself thinking about my connections to the building and just how important they have been to me over the years. I remember taking a dark room course @streetlevelphotoworks a couple of years after leaving secondary school, including the photographs in my portfolio to apply to @glasgowschoolart - After leaving art school I joined @transmissionglasgow and I’ve since gone on to take classes in screenprinting and etching at @glasgowprintstudio

As a studio holder @glasgowindependentstudio we are uniquely lucky (and grateful) in that we are part of an extended family of arts organisations including @glasgowprintstudio @streetlevelphotoworks @projectability @glasgowprojectroom @gmacfilm @sharmanka.theatre @transmissionglasgow - all located in @trongate103 - Five floors of beautiful, kind, caring and abundantly creative people whose livelihoods are each dependent on this delicate, symbiotic ecosystem existing.

City Property, the owners of the building want to increase the rent and service charges to an amount that will give each of these charitable organisations no option other than to close, leaving hundreds of artists and art workers with very uncertain futures.

If you haven’t already, please sign the petition (link in bio) ⬆️ and join the Community protest, Friday 27th March 12pm- 2pm
229 George Street, G11 QU Glasgow

📸 @andybellimages

#trongate103 #pleasesign #protest #glasgowcity #glasgowcitycouncil by @michaeljohnclarence

‘Hot-Spot’, 2026
Oil, acrylic, and Conté on canvas
25.4 x 20.7 cm

Another wee painting from the recent series that evoke a sense of place/space - real, imagined, or otherwise. (Finished for the moment)

Every work is a tussle between more and less, about knowing when to stop or when to push on. Most of my paintings have multiple lives, starting off as one thing and ending up another. Usually, the initial layer contains a figurative element that acts as the anchor for what comes next. Sometimes that means complete erasure; other times, as with ‘Hot-Spot’, it’s more measured.

This painting was an exercise in restraint - about preserving the raw surface, mostly small additions, with a few subtle subtractions. by @michaeljohnclarence

‘New Wave’, 2026
Oil, acrylic and distemper on board
40 x 50 cm

Caught between the past and the present

A tumultuous relationship,

I don’t want to end.

The theatricality of making a painting is in the act of picking up the brush itself. This is the performance.

A Bigger Splash: A painting that could be a homage to Hockney, or Turner, but is neither.

They are both in there of course - dancing. A high stakes, tempestuous melodrama
All something and nothing. Just a bit of camp painting.

.
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#painting #abstractpainting #contemporarypainting #studiowork by @michaeljohnclarence

‘Outcrop’, 2026
Oil, primer, distemper and enamel on canvas
25.4 x 20.7 cm

A small study in erosion and emergence;
surface and depth held in tension. by @michaeljohnclarence

Lovely studio visit last Friday with @yeonjoochoart before she heads back to Seoul. Great conversation (especially the painting bits), and thank you for the impromptu photos. Sometimes forget how lucky we are to have this building to work in until I see how beautiful our spaces really are.

Thanks for popping by x

#glasgowindependentstudio by @michaeljohnclarence

Cactus, 2026
Oil, distemper and acrylic on card
21 x 29.6 cm

Using cheap materials like card and paper lets me work freely and experimentally without worrying too much about the result. With these new works, I’ve been working on different surfaces enjoying building layers between oil, distemper and acrylic, exploring different drying speeds and how this leads to unexpected results that hopefully keep the feeling loose and free. by @michaeljohnclarence

I’ve been enjoying looking at these three paintings on the studio wall this afternoon.

They’re not directly related, rather part of a larger series of recent works, but I’m finding connections in the shared movement, mark-making and surface.

It’s the surface I find most interesting, the subtle interplay between light and opacity; how this can be achieved by contrasting solid areas under transparent glazes.

Branch-like structures appear, stretching up and across. Not depictions of nature, rather suggestions of it. Contrasting lush greenery, warm and fertile, against a cool Japanese hillside, sparse with forms.

30.3 x 29.9 cm
Oil and acrylic on canvas

59.4 x 42 cm
Oil and distemper on board

25.3 x 20.5 cm
Oil, enamel, acrylic and plaster on cavas

#contemporarypainting #oilpainting by @michaeljohnclarence

All about the dramatic hang in ‘A feather from a jay’s wing’ @kingsgateprojectspace - you can see my work in the show alongside some brilliant painters:

@evayywei
@adrian.wiszniewski_artist
@phoebe.u
@samuel_odonnell
@marieclairehamon
#WilliamDaniels
#mariachristoforidou
@michaeljohnclarence

The exhibition runs until [Date].
21 May - 13 June 2026

Go check it out!

Installation photography by Josef Konczak

#kingsgateprojectspace #paintingshow #colour by @michaeljohnclarence

‘(Concealed) within the softness of his skin’
85 x 65 x 3.5 cm
Oil on canvas
2026

‘(Concealed) within the softness of his skin’ is currently featuring in ‘A feather from a jay’s wing’ @kingsgateprojectspace London. The show runs until 13 June 2026. Thanks to @danhowardbirt @marymackenallen @jasmin_zuzanna and all at Kingsgate. A great opening night was had in what felt like the first day of summer, with cold beers in the garden. It was such a lovely evening meeting folk and catching up with London friends, I didn’t take any photos of the opening. If anyone has any please send them over!

I’m showing alongside a really interesting group of painters:

Eva Yiwei Yuan, Adrian Wiszniewski, Phoebe Unwin, Samuel O’Donnell, Marie-Claire Hamon, William Daniels, Michael Clarence, Maria Christoforidou

Text snippet:

“Amid the frivolity and ubiquity of painting today we can sometimes forget how weird it is. By ‘painting’, I mean the doing of it in those small scruffy rooms, as well as the dizzying array of polychromed objects which hang on the walls of larger, cleaner rooms. Painting has preoccupied all cultures at all times, and while it may from time-to-time and from place-to-place have had a use-value or a function, those values are inconstant, they shift and have been re-invented continually.”

✍️ @danhowardbirt

21 May - 13 June 2026
Open Thursday - Saturday 12 - 6pm

Kingsgate Workshops Space
110-116 Kingsgate Road
London
NW6 2JG

#painting #londonart #kingsgateprojectspace #paintingexhibition #colour by @michaeljohnclarence

$“A feather from a jay’s wing” Thank you @danhowardbirt & @kingsgateprojectspace for inviting me to be a part of “A feather from a jay’s wing” which opens next Wednesday. 21 May - 13 June 2026 PV: Wednesday 20 May 6 - 9pm Eva Yiwei Yuan Adrian Wiszniewski Phoebe Unwin Samuel O’Donnell Marie-Claire Hamon William Daniels Michael Clarence Maria Christoforidou A feather from a jay’s wing’ is concerned with colour – specifically the inherent complication that comes when paint (pigmented colour) is used to conjure, or project, or surrogate for, other kinds of colour in the natural world, or in our psychological lives. Winifred Nicholson wrote about (and more importantly attempted to find a way of painting...) the enigmatic wonder of structural colour as seen through prisms, in mother-of-pearl shells and in water ripples. Her focus is fascinating. Those perceived colours are not actually present in those objects, but only made visible because of the way light is reflected or refracted through the structure of the surface of the thing. Similarly, colour can charge forms and spaces with emotive significance (not that this can be readily or universally communicated, or exchanged, but...) which opens-up the possibility of a painting to speak into different, synchronous, ways of inhabiting the world. Kingsgate Project Space 110-116 Kingsgate Road London NW6 2JG Painting by @adrian.wiszniewski_artist @evayywei @adrian.wiszniewski_artist @phoebe.u @samuel_odonnell @marieclairehamon #WilliamDaniels @michaeljohnclarence #mariachristoforidou #painting #exhibition #london by @michaeljohnclarence$

Amazing to see so many turn out in support of @trongate103 - an essential part of Glasgow’s rich and vibrant art scene, which is in peril, with the centre currently at risk of imminent closure from ruthless, short-termist corporate fat-cats! Power to the people!

PLEASE KEEP SIGNING THE PETITION ✍️(Link in bio ⬆️)

Thank you to @claire.forsyth @langdonworld @paulsweeneymsp @cabaretagainst and everyone else who spoke & compered ❤️

@trongate103
@glasgowindependentstudio
@glasgowprojectroom
@glasgowprintstudio
@projectability
@streetlevelphotoworks
@gmacfilm
@transmissionglasgow
@sharmanka.theatre

#saveourarts #saveart #glasgow #glasgowart trongate103 by @michaeljohnclarence