"In my paintings I try to represent my emotional response to reality, to paint the feelings generated while observing a landscape, human figure or event ~ emotions and feelings that gain strength and form during the time spent painting, unlike photography which reflects a split second of reality only.
I like to paint subjects to which I am attached in some way and which generate strong emotion, allowing me to retreat into the “studio of the mind” where time does not exist, achieving a state of intense concentration where only emotional context, line, colour, texture, drawing, and composition matter, escaping the mundane chores of everyday life.
Painting the landscape outdoors is one of my great loves and offers the perfect door into the “studio of the mind”.
Born in Palma de Mallorca to a Spanish mother and Scottish father, Adolfo grew up in Barcelona and, after matriculating, joined his parents in Zambia where his father was working on the copper mines.
Having spent a year in Zambia he came to South Africa to attend art school in East London. Here he studied under Jack Lugg, Ryno Swart, Barry Gibb and Leon Rubens, with fellow students such as Alan Cameron, Norman Catherine and Mike Costello.
After graduating in graphic design, Adolfo worked for several years in Durban, Johannesburg and Cape Town. While earning a living as a graphic designer, he has also been painting and drawing for the past 41 years. He has tried his hand at different styles, but for several years has preferred realism.
He was recently featured in SABC's 'A Country Imagined' TV series, hosted by Johnny Clegg, in the Free State episode.
Exhibitions include
2016
Wildlife, adventure and narrative, annual wildlife exhibition at The Cape Gallery
The Shape of Content, group exhibition at The Cape Gallery
2014
Pause, annual wildlife exhibition at The Cape Gallery
2013
Encounters, annual wildlife exhibition at The Cape Gallery
2011
Group exhibition at The Cape Gallery
Annual wild life exhibition at The Cape Gallery
2 One man shows at the cape Gallery.
2 one-man shows in Durban, group exhibitions with the Artists’ Co-operative in Cape Town and with the Cape Realists.
2 Exhibitions in Phillippolis exploring the town and the Free State landscape.
6 One man shows in The Adolfo McQue Gallery in Philippolis.
2 Group shows at The Crake Gallery JHB.
3 Group shows with SASA.
Artistic philosophy
Adolfo paints from the live model, nature and memory with very little preparation, and feels he gets his best results from this. He loves the craft of painting and has a passion for the brush stroke and for oil paint. He always tries for mood, the play of light and dark on the body.
Trying to welcome the unexpected, his work is spontaneous and from the heart – never gimmicky. This is in contrast to the daily design milieu, which revolves around concept and is often prescribed, always analysed.
Favourite painters are Velasquez, Andrew Wyeth, Rembrandt, Turner, Monet
and John Singer Sargent.
Adolfo McQue’s work can be viewed at the Cape Gallery, Everard
Read Gallery, Cape Town, Die Kraal Gallery, Paarl and Die Ou Wagenhuis
Art Gallery, Phillippolis. His work is in private collections in South
Africa, Canada, the USA, Great Britain, and Spain. |
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Artist: ADOLFO MCQUE
Title: Curious penguins
Size: 70.5 x 88.5 cm
Media: Oil on canvas
Price: R 18 000 Unframed |