Artist Statement

"I have been painting and exhibiting for twenty years now and at this point I find myself more passionate, angry and determined to express myself visually than ever before. Although I realise that in our current post-modern, cynical world a genuine and sincere approach, especially in painting, may be considered somewhat anachronistic I cannot and will not deny the fundamental, inherent drive that compels me to create and communicate visually.

In my paintings I explore issues that concern and move me personally. But the work will also speak to the hopes, worries and fears in all of us as I believe that it is our personal stories that can be the most universal. Be it the unanswerable questions of faith and mortality, the ecstasy and anguish of love, the blight of urban sprawl or the dualistic Manichean style dogma of some governments and religions that prod me to look deeper for insight and understanding, inevitably I find that the hints, clues and partial answers I discover aren’t black and white but various subtle shades of grey. It’s these grey areas that I explore in my work."

"….figurative painter Reid McLachlan explores time, life and death in powerful, explosive works that offer a compelling portrait of the themes that drive humanity. McLachlan's painterly and expressive style and highly individualistic approach to technique represent figurative art at its finest." Melanie Scott, Where Magazine.

“Reid McLachlan paints relationships like no other artist in the Ottawa area...His paintings are always intense, commanding you to stand before them and to meditate whatever dispute is being acted out on the canvas.” Paul Gessell, The Ottawa Citizen.