Event Details

Every Tuesday 9.30 – 10.30am, we invite a Lancaster academic to brief us on their research. The format is a 20 minute talk followed by discussion.

‘My Places’ An Artist’s Journey into the Science of Global Climate Change

Dee McLean

Over the last four years I have been working on a trilogy ‘My Places’. These books and paintings look at the effects of global warming on the places I am emotionally attached to, my London home near Hampstead Heath, through Louisiana in the US where I lived and worked in my early twenties and on to Alberta, Canada which my daughter, Tor, now calls home. I am exploring how they are all intimately linked by the changing global climate.

After a career in medical and scientific illustration - having spent over 20 years shackled to a Mac and its monitor - September 2016 saw me return to painting and drawing.In November of that year I travelled up to Hudson Bay in northern Manitoba, Canada, to draw and paint. It was a salutary experience. The sea ice was six weeks late and polar bears who rely on sea ice for their survival were lining the shore waiting for the ice to return. I was honestly shocked to see the direct effects of global warming for myself.

The trip to Manitoba started me on a journey to investigate the effects of climate change on ‘My Places’ and its effects on ‘My People’. I wanted to explore how they are impacted & linked by our changing climate. Extreme rainfall events in Britain, rising sea levels in Louisiana, wildfires and glacial melt in Alberta all shape this disparate trilogy of projects.

Dee McLeanis an artist journeying through the places she is emotionally attached to and looking at the ways they are all intimately linked by the changing global climate. Her work in watercolour & mixed media reflects how beautiful and precious our ecosystems are, exploring the relationship between our landscapes and ourselves.

With a background in science and art she has returned to painting after a career in scientific and medical illustration. She lives and works in London.