'David McClure has been one of the most familiar figures in mid-century Scottish art for more than 40 years. He was an exceptionally gifted colourist whose impeccably presented paintings expressed a delight in the world around him and whose instantly recogniseable and often dramatic presentations of his studio with a model or a still life with a musical instrument, an opulent flowerpiece or a flight of fanciful birds were varied by bold and sumptuously coloured landscapes of Italy or, latterly, the West Highlands of Scotland.
He was born in Kinlochwinnoch the son of a furniture designer, and for a brief time read English and History at Glasgow University before going to do war service as a “Bavan Boy” in the mines. On his return he changed course and decided to study art at Edinburgh College of Art, where he joined the first Fine Art degree course run in collaboration with Edinburgh University. Elizabeth Blackadder was a fellow student on the course.
After a distinguished student career with postgraduate travel in Spain and Italy, McClure taught on the college painting staff under William Gillies before being honoured by a College Fellowship in 1955. He had married Joyce Flannigan and they became an integral part of the emerging group of young artists centered around the college – David Michie, Elizabeth Blackadder, Robin Philipson, John Houston, Henderson Blyth.
They were also part of the extraordinary social and professional milieu in which Anne Redpath’s friendship, example and encouragement helped to create a valuable rapport and solidarity purpose. Both Joyce and David are shown in the extraordinary evocation of the Redpath circle painted in 1956 by Robin Philipson entitled Anne Redpath, Portrait Interior, a picture which is almost a roll-call of the Edinburgh art scene, and which is presently in the Portrait Gallery.
On David McClure’s appointment to Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art in Dundee in 1957, where he joined the Painting Department led by Albert Morrocco, he and Joyce became part of another rlively circle of artists and art lovers, and their life of happy domestic bliss came to be reflected in the occasional appearance in one or another of their three children – Robin, Paola and kevin – in the studio paintings which emanated from Strawberry Bank.
The remainder of McClure’s teaching life was spent alongside Morrocco and their other colleagues, a partnership of far-reaching influence on Dundee’s – and Scotland’s – art. David became head of Department in 1983 when Morrocco retired, finally himself retiring from teaching in 1985. Always respected and admired by his peers, he had been elected an Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1963 and an Academician in 1972. He was elected to the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolours in 1965 and to membership of the Royal Glasgow Institute in 1990. Apart from an early period when he had lived in Sicily and was concerned with depicting not only Madonnas and infantas of decorative aspect, sometimes combined with landscape but also the occasional rather sinister bishop of priest masked by the dark “shades” associated with Cosa Nostra, McClure’s subject matter shows a sensuous and heady love of colour and an immaculate sense of design and presentation.
He was always prolific, showing at the Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh at the Thackeray in London, until his busy fulfilling vocation suffered a period of numbness on the death of Joyce McClure in 1988. In the course of time his life found another period of happiness when he married Angela Bradbury.
Although suffering from a gradual worsening of the repertory condition which had dogged much of his life, he began to produce paintings, mainly of wonderful flower subjects and Scottish coastal scenes, which once more showed all his richness of expression and sensuous joy in handling paint. One other of his achievements deserves mention.
In 1976 Edinburgh University’s University Press commissioned him to write a monograph on John Maxwell one of his teachers and favourite exemplar. It is a model of its kind knowledgeable, insighted and with all the sincere respect and admiration of a painter for one he regards as a master. It is also one of the most perceptive biographical studies of any Scottish artist of our time – a delight to read.
David McClure was a man of many friendships and blessed with the love of his family who can take some comfort from the knowledge that, like all good painters of our day, David McClure is already enshrined in the real history of 20th – century Scottish painting. The many people who own McClures are indeed fortunate.'
RSA Obituary, transcribed from 1998 RSA Annual Report
