Leonard McComb
Nature, Energy, Vibration
Learn about Leonard McComb's career as an internationally renowned artist, sculptor and teacher, and why Anglesey played such a significant part in his life.
15 February to 3 August
Artist
Biography
Leonard McComb 1930-2018
While the artist earned the majority of his success in the capital, it was Anglesey, off the North coast of Wales that profoundly influenced his work. He regularly visited when his mother relocated from a troubled Wythenshawe in the 1970s, providing the artist a place to observe nature away from an unruly Brixton, the location of his home and studio. With a Catholic mother and Protestant father (a very controversial marriage in 1930s Ireland), McComb was no stranger to the hypocrisy of religion and the impression of violence. It was his observations of nature, his diverse studies of Art History, Eastern Philosophy, and the Celtic culture in which he was raised which led him to a holistic view of humanity and the natural world. While McComb’s work is rooted in the traditions of rigorous observational drawing, his philosophy was thoroughly modern. An art that is imbued with a belief that there is no division between humanity and nature which is shared with eco generations today.
In 2019 Oriel Môn received an extraordinary gift from the estate of artist Leonard McComb RA (1930-2018) – a collection of his Anglesey based paintings and drawings. They will be showcased in Oriel Kyffin Williams alongside loans from Tate, National Portrait Gallery, Manchester Art Gallery and private collections. This unique and visually stunning exhibition will be one of the most significant displays of his work to date.
Exhibition Highlights:
Rock and Sea Anglesey, 1983
The largest drawing in a British collection ‘vibrates’ off the walls
Rock and Sea Anglesey, 1983, is the largest work made by the artist at a monumental 10m x 3m. Working for nine days at the cliffs in Benllech Bay, McComb observed the connection of the sea, the cliffs, and the sky to capture this profound meeting point of natural energy. Drawn on eighty four large sheets of paper, on an easel weighed down with limestone rocks, McComb’s insistence on observing from life did not limit the scale of his work. Rendered in pencil, brush and ink, and watercolour, thousands upon thousands of lines depict a dramatic corner of Anglesey as one immutable vibrating mass. The work captures everything that McComb stood for: his philosophy about the natural world, observation from life, and a profound attention to detail. Rock and Sea Anglesey won the Hugh Casson Prize for Drawing in 2005 at the Royal Academy Summer Show, some twenty years after its creation.
