Ep 21: McLean Edwards

One of Australia’s most outstanding painters, McLean Edwards had his first solo show at 16 years of age when he was still at high school.

Since then he has had 30 solo exhibitions with his most recent, ‘Marsupials’, about to open in New York at Olsen Gruin Gallery. He is a five time Archibald Prize finalist and has been included in the Archibald as a sitter four times.

His compelling paintings invite us to enter another world where his characters’ lives and motives are limited only by our imaginations.

In this podcast interview, Edwards talks about how that first solo show came about, why he was later kicked out of art school and why he doesn’t usually take portrait commissions.

He also reveals interesting background details about his Archibald finalist portraits of Tim Storrier and Cate Blanchett.

To hear the podcast interview press ‘play’ above and see below for the paintings we talk about and a short video taken on the day of the interview.