​Phil Mcloughlin

Phil Mcloughlin returned to his hometown, Dunfermline, with his solo show, “The Meanings of Things” at the Fire station in June/July 2016.

            “I use verisimilitude as a distraction – not to represent objects but to give the viewer something to contemplate.  In that sense my paintings have much in common with icons – touchstones for meditation and reflection, rather than decoration.”

“The longer we reflect on something the less we seem to ‘know’ what ‘it’ is.”

Phil Mcloughlin began his career in art in the late 1960s as Phil Barker, winning the prestigious Pernod Prize at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1974.  Although largely self-taught he became a founding member of the Dundee Group in 1976, with Jack Knox, Grant Clifford, Jack Morocco and others.  One of the few conceptual and installation artists working in Scotland in the 1970s he exhibited with the Scottish Young Contemporaries, the Dundee Group and at the St Andrews Art Festival.

After 30 years practising as a psychotherapist Phil decided to return to art adopting his grandfather’s name, Mcloughlin:

   “My career as a psychotherapist had kindled a deep interest in the experiential world beyond language; what Samuel Beckett often referred to as the ‘ineffable’.  I decided that the most radical thing I could do would be to retrace my steps: return to my roots in painting and explore the ‘unsaid’ through the simplest of materials.”

First shown at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh, Mcloughlin went on to win the NS Macfarlane award at the Royal Glasgow Institute and the Artist of the year award, both in 2011.  A year later he was elected as professional member to the Society of Scottish Artists and in 2013 won the Walter Scott prize at the Mclellan Galleries in Glasgow.

He shows widely across the UK and his work is in public and private collections across the UK, Europe and Australasia.

art prints fire station creative prints oil painting abstract home art wall art

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