McLagan, Ian

You may know Ian McLagan as a member of the Small Faces, the Faces, or for the last 30 years as leader of the Bump Band. You may know his music from recordings with The Rolling Stones, Bonnie Raitt, Bob Dylan, Bruce Sprinsteen, Paul Westerberg, Billy Bragg, Taj Mahal, Patty Griffin, John Mayer and Ronnie Wood to name only a few. Or you may have read his brilliant autobiography "All The Rage." But before he played the piano and organ with all these great performers, and before he picked up a pen to write his acclaimed memoir, he was a painter. Though it¹s primarily been his hobby for the last 45 years, ever since moving to the country near Austin, Texas in 1994 he¹s painted continually. His subjects range from landscapes, abstracts, still lifes, self portraits, portraits of friends and family, and portraits of his dogs, but in recent years he¹s suffered with migraine headaches, which changed his focus entirely. Being equally fascinated and horrified by the intense light storms known as 'auras' that usually precede these 'headaches', he began sketching them in notepads in ink while they were happening, but found it to be like trying to catch a lightning bolt. They were too colourful and too intense for ink, so he began painting them in acrylics on canvas. Prescription medications of several types exist, but none that cured these attacks, and though migraine sufferers are advised to rest in a dark room and let it take its course, he decided to capture these images as they occured, to take something from them, instead of them controlling him. Though these paintings might appear to be abstracts, they are honest attempts to paint what he sees, eyes open or shut, the intensity of the flashing auras that precede a migraine attack cannot be avoided. His art is to make paint from pain.