Elaine Woo MacGregor is a Scottish-born Chinese artist trained in the Glasgow School of Art. She graduated with a Bachelors Degree with honours, acquired a studio and began working as a full-time artist. MacGregor began to be noticed as a serious and thoughtful painter and her first solo exhibition was 'Portraits' in Glasgow. She has exhibited in galleries in Edinburgh, Glasgow, London, Cambridge and abroad. One of her works - 'Hotel No.4' - is in the public galleries collection, the Atkinson Art Gallery, Southport. MacGregor's work has been shown in the U.K, U.S.A, Australia and Thailand and critically recognised by virtue of the Dewar Arts Award, the James Torrance Memorial Award, the Hope Scott Trust Award and the Cross Trust Fund. In 2022, she was a finalist in the Jackson's Painting Prize, received Art Paisley Prize for outstanding work, and Velvet Easel Award from Paisley Art Institute.
Recent exhibitions include her solo exhibition Maman et Muses in Edinburgh, Scotland, Art on a Postcard in Fitzrovia Gallery, London, Art Miami, USA, Young Masters, London and The British Art Fair, Saatchi Gallery, London, U.K. She has been selected for Platform 2023 - London Art Fair in 'Reframing the Muse', exhibition curated by Ruth Millington, showing with The Cynthia Corbett Gallery.
Artist statement :
Elaine Woo MacGregor's work encapsulates the world seen through the eyes of a cross cultural artist. She uses eclectic mark making and imagery to create atmospheric and theatrical scenes. Although her painted stories are often fictitious, elements of the picture are based on real people, places and things.
‘Sometimes I doubt my memory and wonder whether I will only be able to remember what never really happened’. Carlos Ruiz Zafón (Marina, 1999)
Elaine states: "My paintings are a series of narrative works based on the novel ‘The Shadow of the Wind’ by the late Carlos Ruiz Zafón. I am interested in the complex roles of the Women and the main character, Daniel Sempere, using the voice of the author as a stimulus, layering and painting out to determine the final composition.
I visited Barcelona and Madrid in August 2022. The neo-gothic architecture, the luminosity of the beaches, the meandering road to Montjuic, and the cross-country train journey through Spain’s arid interior – places and themes that play such a central role in the novel - have fuelled my ideas back in my Edinburgh studio.
There is a symbiosis between the way I paint, the narratives in my works and that of the late author’s. He speaks of generations, good and evil, love and lost love, tragedy, and friendship. I fused my visions, my interpretation of his words and his ‘old Barcelona’. I worked from my travel sketches, fashion photography, film stills and antique photographs to instil and create these painterly dream-like visions."
“Dreams have no titles. ”– Max Ernst