Fiona Maclean is a New Zealand born Artist and Painter based in Sydney, Australia & New York.
Winning a place to study at New York’s prestigious Parsons School of Art, Fiona moved to the big apple in 2005. Majoring in Painting in the Fine Arts Faculty.
While studying at the prestigious Parsons School of Art and Design Fiona’s career was cut tragically short. At an extremely young age Fiona became a widow. Her husband was diagnosed with terminal cancer (in 2004) and in the time leading up to his death Fiona dedicated her own life to her husband’s care. Her artistic pursuits went on hold. The loss of her husband meant that it would be another almost 6 years before Fiona eventually found the courage and inspiration to pick up where she felt she’d left off. Since then she has continued to paint and illustrate professionally and exhibit.
Carpe Diem!
ARTIST STATEMENT
As an artist I’m fascinated by capturing the fleetingness of youth, beauty and sexuality and the elusiveness of these particular elements. Perhaps it’s because I became a widow at such a young age (my husband having passed away in his early thirties) that I now try to depict eternal youth on canvas. They evoke the free spirit that I once was and the carefree attitude that you can never quite return to after such a tragedy.
For my Bright Young Things series I was inspired initially by Oscar Wilde’s classic novel The Picture of Dorian Gray. My Beautiful Creatures series is full of young hopefuls, teens and twenty-somethings all full of energy, ambition and bravado and ready to take on the world. Their optimistic ambition still intact, naively unaware of what comes with maturity and age.
'Lost Boy JT' - from the 'Bright Young Things' series. 24 x 18in Acrylic on canvas
'David' - from the 'Bright Young Things' series. Acrylic on canvas 18 x 24in
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