She primarily showed her work at the Rebecca Hossack Gallery and the Glasgow Print Studio.

[1] McLellan was born in Middlesbrough, where her father was an engineer with ICI, but her family moved to Dumfries when she was 12 years old.

[1] Despite the diagnosis, McLellan insisted on living her life in a similar manner to before she became ill: she walked up four flights of stairs to her studio for as long as she was able.

[1] She was known for still-life paintings consisting of "pared-down, almost abstracted, images of single plants, flowers, and other distinct items, set against richly-worked backgrounds of saturated colour"[3] and portraits, both bearing the strong influence of Japanese art.

[1] McLellan was considered a hard worker, and had been in her studio working the day that she had to be taken into hospital for the last time.