Following the success of her first Solo Exhibition at The Sanctuary Gallery in 2023, artist and Royal Drawing School tutor Andrea McLean returns to the gallery with a new collection that brings sacred places, landscape and myth together in visionary works of art.

 

For Andrea, art is a pathway to finding meaning and structure in human existence: through the creation of real and imagined landscapes she explores ideas that span time and space, from The Ark to abstract portals, small worlds, journeys and labyrinths, quests and mazes, images of birds and the beauty and harmony of the Kosmos. Drawn and detailed in layers like elaborate embroidery and structured in the manner of hieratical fresco painting, her works balance modernity with a strong sense of our shared past.

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Andrea was raised in the Forest of Dean, growing up with a love for the landscape, for stories, and for the work of William Blake. She went on to train at Falmouth School of Art and then the Slade School of Fine Art before undertaking an Abbey Scholarship at the British School in Rome. She has often worked in ecclesiastical settings, including a year as Artist in Residence at Gloucester Cathedral, and was recently invited to speak on Research in Art Practice at Middlesex University, and on William Blake at the Pari Centre in Tuscany. 

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Andrea has received awards at the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition and the Jerwood Drawing Prize, and her painting ‘A Contemporary Mappa Mundi’ is held in the British Library Collection.

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Accompanying Andrea’s exhibition is new work by maker Colin Hawkins of Loco Glass, who use traditional glassblowing techniques to make modern and exceptionally beautiful studio pieces. Colin trained in Glass at Sunderland University and the Royal College of Art in London. His work is held in both public and private collections worldwide. 

 

See Kosmos from 10th October to 6th November 2026 at The Sanctuary Studio & Gallery, High Street, Newnham-on-Severn, Gloucestershire, GL14 1BB. www.thesanctuarygallery.com

 

Opening times: Tuesday - Friday 10am - 5pm, Saturday 10am - 4pm

 

 

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