A SINISTER jellyfish floating past a tenement and a selkie rescuing a refugee child are just two examples of what could possibly be a new genre – lockdown art.
They have been created by Glasgow artist Frank McNab who is just one of many Scottish artists harnessing their creativity to get through the coronavirus crisis.
McNab’s inspiration for his paintings was sparked when he was trying to regain his strength after being laid low by Covid-19 in April.
Sitting in his flat, he saw a woman in a nearby tenement hanging a newly washed, white dress outside her window to dry. The wind blew up and inflated the dress into a bell shape which prompted the idea of portraying the coronavirus as a large, pale jellyfish floating past the city’s tenements. To McNab’s surprise the Covid paintings struck a chord with the public and he has sold almost all of them.
“In some ways the virus has been good to me, although it is a strange subject to be popular in,” he told the Sunday National. “I wasn’t sure people would want to even think about the virus drifting past their window, but perhaps it gives the invisible danger a familiar shape.”
His other paintings feature a group of his friends dressed up as spacemen battling against the giant jellyfish.
“They have their names on the back of their spacesuits – one is the late Stuart Christie, the anarchist who tried to blow up Franco, another is Craig Munro, a very strong Yesser and Willy Maley, Professor of Renaissance Studies at the University of Glasgow,” said McNab.
The idea of astronauts came to him because he noticed that during lockdown people could be seen looking out of their windows as if they were looking out the portholes of a spaceship at the world outside.
“They became more isolated and were living in a world populated by the virus where they could only safely function with protective equipment,” said McNab.
His lockdown art has also tackled the refugee crisis with one of his paintings portraying the mythical Scottish selkie rescuing a child from the sea. “It is a warm, welcoming embrace rather than Westminster’s cold, disgusting attitude,” he said.
He added that while lockdown had been frustrating for artists, like everyone else, and his illness had been scary and unpleasant, it had given him time to reflect.
“Luckily, I wasn’t hospitalised but for many weeks I was too weak to hold a paintbrush,” he said. “However that slow recovery gave me time to think about personal space and the spaces in our environment – and watch life and human behaviour changing all around me.
“I think lockdown art could become a genre with recognisable themes emerging as this continues – especially amongst Glasgow artists, who’ve been working under the longest period of restrictions.”
A recent exhibition in Glasgow’s Sogo Gallery featured the lockdown art of McNab and other artists.
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