Named after one of his college courses, “Patrick McCay: Explore, Exploit, Express: A Thematic Retrospective,” on view at the Whistler House Museum of Art in Lowell, Massachusetts through August 3, also features the work of three of McCay’s past students: David Drinon, Suzanne Hodge and Lucas Grondin. He’s currently a professor at the Institute of Art and Design at New England College of Henniker, New Hampshire.
While the exhibition looks at the Irish-born, Scottish-American artist’s work of over 30 years, the show is intended to look at his various styles of paintings during that period as opposed to his tenure as an artist.
Displayed in the museum’s Parker Gallery (which also includes an ongoing display of works by Lowell Art Association artists), the show is hung in a way that flows perfectly through those styles, with, the show’s press material suggests, a tip of the hat towards “Scottish Expressionism.”
“Sunrise Maine I & II,” oil on canvas, 20” x 20” and “Tokyo Moose on Canvas,” acrylic and oil on canvas are unique in McCay’s use of bright aqua blue, a color normally associated with the water but used perfectly by his setting of serene pastoral scenes.
“And she feeds you tea and oranges that come all the way from China,” acrylic on canvas, 36” x 36”, its title wonderfully written over a small lower corner collection of painted oranges, features two seagulls looking like they could be standing right outside the artist’s view, the tray holding his morning tea joined by a feature from one of the main subjects.
You quickly learn that McCay’s paintings bring you places you wish you were at, right at that instant.