Norma Jean Maclean

Norma Jean MacLean is an Island-based artist with a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, and a BSc from the University of Prince Edward Island. Primarily a painter, her work has come to include drawing, performance, installation and sculpture. Themes in her painted work often involve obscure and underused spaces with a focus on the aesthetics of practicality and utility in both found and imagined composition. She has participated in residencies at the Banff Centre, and Lunenburg, NS, and in her home province of PEI. Her work is included in public and private collections across Canada and has been shown in galleries nationally as well as internationally including England and Italy.

Education:

NSCAD University,Halifax, Bachelor of Fine Art

University of Prince Edward Island,Bachelor of Science

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Norma Jean MacLean reflects on collecting in her solo exhibition at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery

Artist Norma Jean Maclean stands next to Grafting No. 4. The oil on canvas painting is one of the pieces she created for “Accumulated, Positioned, Reflected”, an exhibition at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery in Charlottetown. SALLY COLE/THE GUARDIAN - The Guardian Photo by SaltWire Network /SaltWire Network

Rebound Court is one of the pieces in Accumulated, Positioned, Reflected, a new exhibition at the Confederation Centre Art Gallery. SUBMITTED PHOTO

Artist and writers notes; Take the basketball court series, for example. The courts and nets are easy for the viewer to understand because the forms are familiar. But Maclean has placed the basketball nets back to back, as if they were in conflict to each other.

I like that even though they are inanimate objects they are interacting. I also like the multiple shadows in each painting, says the NSCAD graduate, who is part of the gallerys Emerging Artist Program that is supported by the RBC Foundation.