Neil Macdonald PAI RGI RSW is drawn to locations which exert historic and mythic presence. Macdonald is particularly engaged with Scottish history and the evidence of its previous peoples.
Macdonald's works explores the lyrical narrative of natural sites and strong bold shapes offered by castles, churches, old townships and harbours. This is done through the distortion of perspective, invention and editing, aiming to capture an essence of the structure or place. In some pieces topographic accuracy is replaced by an imaginative response to the subject. Macdonald enjoys applying each layer of paint, striving for a coherent statement as the image emerges. This reveals the subject's unique sense and poetry of place.
Neil Macdonald trained at Glasgow School of Art from 1975 to 1980. In 2012 he was elected a member of the Paisley Art Institute and in 2013 a member of the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour and the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts. Macdonald has exhibited widely in Edinburgh, Glasgow and London.