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Painter; constructor of boxes and free-standing sculptures using collage and various materials, born into landowning family at Polwarth, Berwickshire. McEwen was educated at Eton College and Cambridge University, worked as a professional musician, then became a full-time artist at the beginning of the 1950s. In the early 1960s he had several solo exhibitions at Durlacher Bros, in New York, of his meticulous botanical watercolours. He then changed direction, becoming an abstract painter initially working in acrylic on glass and acrylic sheet, then making sculptures, some being mass-produced, which were shown at Richard Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh, in 1969. Two years later a trip to India revived his interest in botanical illustration. He had a show at Nihonbashi Gallery, Tokyo, in 1980; Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh, showed his botanical pictures in 1988; and in 1989–90 he was included in Scottish Art since 1900 at Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, which holds abstract work by him.

Text source: 'Artists in Britain Since 1945' by David Buckman (Art Dictionaries Ltd, part of Sansom & Company)


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