42 Watercolor artist | AUGUST 2019
have people saying ‘Th at’s really good’
or ‘You’re a great artist,’ I guess every-
thing about yourself stems from that
kind of confi dence about life.”
Art also runs in McEwan’s family; he
studied at the same art school as his
mother’s cousin, and her daughter fol-
lowed in her footsteps. Th e paternal
branch of the family was involved in
textile design and architecture, and his
father is a tool designer by trade. Both
of his parents encouraged his love of
art, taking him to museums and art
galleries from an early age with his
brother—nine years younger and with
little interest in the subject—in tow.
Upheaval came at the age of 16,
when his family emigrated to Canada.
McEwan returned to Scotland after a
year. His parents followed a few years
later, but after only a short period of
time, they emigrated again, to America. Erosion of Memory
(watercolor on
paper, 22x30)His mother and brother now live in
Los Angeles; McEwan stayed behind.
“I said, ‘I’m going to art school; I’ll
catch up with you later,’ ” he says. “But
I never did.”
Strangely, Los Angeles is the one
place McEwan visits where he fi nds he
doesn’t come across a lot of artistic
inspiration. “I go there, and I try to
work, but I fi nd it all too new and
shiny,” he says. “Th at’s not to say that
there aren’t any rundown areas, but
there’s not any place that’s old
enough, if you know what I mean.”
If Los Angeles is too new, places
like Scotland and Malta are at the
opposite end of the spectrum. Yet
McEwan is hard put to defi ne exactly
what attracts him. “Th ere are no
ground rules,” he says. “I don’t say,
‘OK, I’m not drawing people or ‘I
won’t draw horses.’ It’s just a case ofanything that catches my eye, I’ll draw
and paint. It could be an interesting
surface texture, the way the light falls
across a wall, or even a color.”A CHANGE IN STYLE
AND SUBJECT
McEwan appears, at fi rst glance, to be
a fan of realism—but appearances can
be deceiving. His style has changed
over time, too. When in art school,
much of his work was inspired by
Italian artist Giorgio de Chirico—
very surreal—and McEwan drew
from his own imagination. But when
he won the traveling Alastair Salveson
Scholarship in 1996, and subsequently
went to China for three months, his
artistic style began to change.