Charles MacQueen RSW RGI

Husband and wife artists, Charles MacQueen RSW RGI and Christine Woodside RSW RGI, will exhibit new and recent works in a joint exhibition.

Having made a name for himself as an abstractionist at a time when the Scottish art scene was dominated by figurative artists, Charles MacQueen has become known as one of the foremost Scottish painters of his generation. Travelling frequently to Italy, Morocco and Tunisia, MacQueen's work centres around the evocation of place, for this exhibition he has focussed on Venice.

Working in mixed media, he uses colour and surface texture to create abstract compositions incorporating memories and forms observed on his travels. Looking to the sharp contrasts of light and dark created in doorways and arches, MacQueen produces texture with layers of paint and gesso, channelling the decadent richness of the Italian Renaissance painters.

Painting for him, is not a representation but an evocation. He works with mixed media, colour and surface texture to create abstract compositions incorporating memories and forms observed from his travels.

Charles MacQueen was born in Glasgow and studied at Glasgow School of Art from 1958 to 1962. After graduation MacQueen pursued a career in teaching art, until in 1990 when he retired and became a full time professional artist. His travels have taken him to Morocco, Italy, the Greek Islands and France. The influence of the colour and light experienced in these places are visible in his highly textured and atmospheric works. He is an acclaimed artist with many prestigious accolades including the Glasgow Civic Art Prize won in 1971 and the Torrance Award and Teacher's Whisky Travel Award, both at the Royal Glasgow Institute. He was elected a member of the Royal Glasgow Institute in 1983 and the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour in 1984. His works can be found in public, private and corporate collections worldwide.