McLean - Coloured emblem paintings

Emblems coloured by Adam McLean

Since the 1980s I have been making coloured versions of alchemical, astronomical and related woodcut and engraved emblems. Initially I did this for my own interest. During the 1970s and 1980s I had been able to examine a considerable number of alchemical manuscripts by visiting many libraries in the UK. I was particularly drawn to those with series of coloured images. I studied in detail the ways in which colours were used in these manuscripts and applied this understanding to the colouring of woodcuts and engravings. In the late 1990s, when colour laser printing became available at a price I could afford, I began to use my coloured images as illustrations in my books. Thus I issued my Book of Lambspring Coloured followed by many other such publications. I also began, from 1999, to sell these as A4 sized prints. In 2011 I decided to stop selling these prints as they were uneconomic. Instead I created the Blurb books of my coloured emblems. To date I have made over 1000 of these hand coloured emblems, many of which are framed and adorn the walls of my apartment.
As I am getting older, I am becoming aware of the fact that I cannot leave the problem of selling or otherwise disposing of this significant collection of my paintings to my partner Franzeska and my sister Moira, who are the executors of my estate. So I intend to begin selling off these paintings gradually over the coming years. It will probably take ten or more years to sell a significant part of these images, but I wish to begin this now.

So I now intend selling my original paintings of these images.

Click to go to the page where you can see examples of these emblems and possibly buy one.