Grand Bohemian Gallery Presents “Beyond the Red Barn”

“Barns tell stories and they speak to me,” says Bruce MacDonald, a resident of Lexington, Virginia. They speak of history, of time past, of labor.

They speak of directed purpose and association — with the cattle, chickens, horses, the hay, the tractors, rakes and pitchforks sheltered in them — going back to America’s roots.

Their speech is plain, but clear.

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“That is why I paint barns,” says MacDonald. “Their stories vary but at their core they reflect honesty, history and labor. And it’s not just the boards and beams…barns are the projection screen of the land, the sky, sun, clouds, rain, storms and hills.”

MacDonald was born in Chicago and attended Trinity College (for a B.A. degree) in Hartford, CT as well as the School of the Art Institute and the American Academy of Art, post graduate — both in Chicago. He spent much of his career as a professor of Business Administration (Advertising & Design) at Washington & Lee ( 2001-2009), and VMI University, (2010-2015) but was also featured in group and solo exhibitions from California to London, England over his five-decade (and counting) career. He grew up in the Midwest, with farms just on the edge of the towns, often bicycling out and playing in the vast barns with friends.

A family friend was the well-known Chicago artist Earl Gross who mentored MacDonald and invited him into the studio as an intern. Beyond Gross, the artist cites Edward Hopper as one of his inspirations. “I have been working in this direction, eliminating detail more and more, looking for the deeper meaning beneath the surface. I have found this level most often, in shape, color and position,” he notes.

“I strive to pull the viewer into the frame of the picture, to be there with me and to wonder at time being suspended – the moment before, the moment after,” says MacDonald.

His work is in the permanent collections of Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH; The Union League Club of Chicago; Wachovia National Bank (now Wells Fargo), Stamford, CT; Trinity College, Hartford, CT; Washington & Lee University, Lexington, VA; and the US Naval Academy. New oil on canvas paintings and pastels on paper will be on view for the first time in Asheville beginning August 5 – September 14.