Frank McNab is a Ayrshire-based artist whose work draws on literature, poetry, and a highly personal view of the world. Known for his distinctive use of symbolism and narrative, McNab creates paintings that transform familiar scenes and emotional states into surreal, allegorical landscapes where cities become tenement closes, fear becomes a strange garden, and emotions take the form of animals or imagined spaces.
Born in Glasgow, he studied at Glasgow School of Art and is a member of the Glasgow Art Club, the Royal Glasgow Institute of the Fine Arts (RGI), and the Paisley Art Institute. His work has been exhibited widely, including at the Royal Scottish Academy, and is held in both public and private collections across the UK, Europe, North America, and Russia. His paintings have also appeared on book covers, music albums, and in film.
McNab’s work reflects a deep connection to Scotland’s landscapes and stories, as well as a long-standing engagement with literature. He has been commissioned to respond to the writings of Milton, Yeats, Dante, Burns, Tennyson, Vysotsky, and T.S. Eliot.
At the core of his practice is a desire to “paint what you can’t see” using the visible world to express psychological depth, memory, and imagined experience. He continues to live and work in Glasgow, developing work that blends realism with poetic invention.