Jean Macalpine

Cut Wall, 1996, 57 x 46 cm, Hand-toned phototgraph

Jean Macalpine - Cut Wall,
1996,
57 x 46 cm,
Hand-toned phototgraph

Jean Macalpine was brought up in the Ribble Valley, Lancashire, and now lives in Menorca with her partner Kenneth Draper.

Her photographs are unique, each hand-toned and only one print is made from each negative. Chemical tinting in the developing process gives her the freedom to change colour, shift spaces and depth, and re-develop tonal areas.

Mary Rose Beaumont in her monograph ‘Jean Macalpine - Intervals in Light’ writes

“Jean Macalpine’s work is a realisation of her sensations of landscape. Her aims are to do with fine art : her interests lie in formality and ambiguity, in light and atmosphere, all of which are fine art concerns.

Jean Macalpine regards herself as an artist who happens to use the photographic medium, but were she to consider that the image might be better served by another medium in the future she would not hesitate to use it, be it painting, printmaking or mixed media. For her the camera is simply a tool towards the finished work which is so finely tuned that one is aware primarily of the image and only secondly of the medium. In this regard she stands alone in her field”