MacCready studied drawing and sculpture at Yale, receiving a BA in Architecture. He has studied oil painting with Kathy Gore-Fuss in Olympia since 2023. He lives and works in Olympia, WA, and has been a Professor in the University of Washington School of Oceanography since 1994.
I have been drawing my whole life, enchanted by the magic that turns simple lines and marks into compelling images. The accumulated drawings are an illustrated diary of my past. They are different from photos because each represents a pause where I let myself fall into that calm place of gazing for a long time.
I love many types of drawing. The precise graphics of Durer, the permission Van Gogh gave us to make fields of marks, the thrill of brush and black ink with no pencil, making light by erasing.
After a long career studying ocean physics, I have taken up oil painting. At this point I have no consistent style. Each painting is its own unique struggle. I love art where you can feel the artist's struggle! I'm influenced by whatever artist I'm studying at the time: Sergeant, Bonnard, Van Gogh, Cassat, Diebenkorn, Munch, Caravaggio.
Does my other life as a scientist overlap with my art, as we imagine for da Vinci? I suppose it must. When I look at clouds I think of what my father taught me about the release of heat from water vapor condensing into particles. I think about how the clouds felt when flying under them in my hang-gliding days. The surface of Puget Sound tells me about the pattern of converging currents underneath and about the pattern of the wind revealed in small waves.
What I choose to paint is much like my drawings. Family, the woods, my wife's farm animals, places in Olympia, especially the Capitol. I hope my ongoing exploration of what colors and shapes can express helps you stop and see your world in a new way.
