Grace Mcarthur

Scottish artist Patsy McArthur explores the grace and power of human movement in her naturalistic drawings and paintings. Her latest works, including small ink studies, charcoal and graphite drawings and large oil paintings, convey a palpable sense of strength and athleticism, while also evoking a transcendent quality in the depiction of the human form in various states of suspension, from leaping and soaring to flying and falling. Above all, a feeling of freedom is carried throughout. McArthur studied painting in Aberdeen in the northeast of Scotland at the Gray's School of Art, where she received an Honors BA in Fine Art. She was awarded the Royal Scottish Academy John Kinross Scholarship to study abroad in Florence. In 2001, McArthur completed her MA in European Fine Art from the Winchester School of Art in Barcelona. McArthur has lived and worked in Australia, Spain, China, Berlin and New York and is currently based in Brighton, UK. This multinational perspective is reflected in her work by her striking ability to capture the universality of human emotion.

Realist art attempts to portray its subject matter without artifice. Similar to naturalism, authentic realist paintings and prints see an integration of true-to-life colors, meticulous detail and linear perspectives for accurate portrayals of the world. 

Work that involves illusionistic techniques of realism dates back to the classical world, such as the deceptive trompe l’oeil used since ancient Greece. Art like this became especially popular in the 17th century when Dutch artists like Evert Collier painted objects that appeared real enough to touch. Realism as an artistic movement, however, usually refers to 19th-century French realist artists such as Honoré Daumier exploring social and political issues in biting lithographic prints, while the likes of Gustave Courbet and Jean-François Millet painting people — particularly the working class — with all their imperfections, navigating everyday urban life. This was a response to the dominant academic art tradition that favored grand paintings of myth and history. 

By the turn of the 20th century, European artists, such as the Pre-Raphaelites, were experimenting with nearly photographic realism in their work, as seen in the attention to every botanical attribute of the flowers surrounding the drowned Ophelia painted by English artist John Everett Millais.

Although abstraction was the guiding style of 20th-century art, the realism trend in American modern art endured in Edward Hopper, Andrew Wyeth and other artists’ depictions of the complexities of the human experience. In the late 1960s, Photorealism emerged with artists like Chuck Close and Richard Estes giving their paintings the precision of a frame of film.

Contemporary artists such as Jordan Casteel, LaToya Ruby Frazier and Aliza Nisenbaum are now using the unvarnished realist approach for honest representations of people and their worlds. Alongside traditional mediums, technology such as virtual reality, artificial intelligence and immersive installations are helping artists create new sensations of realism in art.

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