New Arrivals podcast | Bachelorette by France-Lise McGurn

France-Lise McGurn is a Glasgow-based artist whose work is underpinned by an intuitive approach to making. McGurn has become recognised for her vibrant and lyrical paintings, populated by archetypal figures drawn from her imagination. As well as painting on canvas, she frequently paints directly onto the wall to create a whole environment.

The National Galleries of Scotland is thrilled to welcome McGurn's atmospheric work Bachelorette to the collection, funded with a donation from Denise Coates CBE.

Bachelorette is a large-scale painting in two parts – that is, it’s a diptych, with two panels hung side by side. Made using layers of oil and acrylic paints, as well as marker and spray paint on canvas, it has a striking colour palette, including a fiery orange-red contrasted with more muted tones. Its composition of figures and entwined bodily fragments emerge from abstract passages of colour and form to create a painting full of energy and atmospheric charge.  

In this episode of New Arrivals, a series of podcasts introducing the artists behind some of the recent additions to the Scottish collection, McGurn and Curator Lucy Askew discuss the work, which was completed in the artist's Glasgow studio during the first COVID-19 lockdown in 2020.

France-Lise McGurn Bachelorette 2020 © France-Lise McGurn
7 January 2022