* PETER MCLAREN (SCOTTISH B.1964), THE CYCLIST LOOKING OVER HIS SHOULDER (BLUE WITH SMALL RAINBOW)

mixed media on paper, signed and dated '87, titled labels verso mounted, framed and under glass image size 66cm x 48cm, overall size 92cm x 72cm Handwritten label verso Exhibition label verso: Peter McLaren: New Paintings March 1988, Compass Gallery, Glasgow Note: Born in 1964, McLaren was the star graduate of Edinburgh College of Art in 1986. While there he won the John Kinross Scholarship, from the Royal Scottish Academy, which allowed him to study in Florence and the Richard Ford Award, from the Royal Academy in London, to study the works in the Prado, Madrid. As a student, he travelled by bicycle to see collections in places such as Amsterdam, Arnhem, Paris and London. His Degree show caused a sensation, featuring oil paintings of figures on racing bikes painted in "action mode" in a technique approaching performance. He followed with images of gilded youth in fast cars and then overscale still lives and transpositions of parts of Velasquez Las Meninas before moving to Orkney and tackling the dramatic seas and coastline with the same originality and attack. He has exhibited with the likes of Bellany, Lupertz and Baselitz. McLaren has also won numerous other prizes and important awards including the 1988 British Airways Most Promising Artist Award Travelling Scholarship (£10,000). He is a regular contributor to The Royal Scottish Academy, The Royal Glasgow Institute of Fine Arts and The Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolour. He has had solo exhibitions in Glasgow, Edinburgh (including The Scottish Gallery), London (including Portland Gallery and Thompson's Gallery), Belgium and Chicago and has taken part in many group exhibitions.