McFadyen was part of the diaspora of artists to the East End since the late sixties and says that the figures in his work of that period were not inventions but sightings of individuals and events of the time.
[1] In 1992 he was commissioned to design the set and costumes for Sir Kenneth MacMillan's last ballet The Judas Tree at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
In 2001 Iain Sinclair wrote Walking up walls to accompany Jock McFadyen's solo exhibition at Agnews and Lund Humphries published a monograph on the artist, A book about a painter, written by David Cohen.
[citation needed] Projects have included the sculptor Richard Wilson, painter Bob and Roberta Smith, and musicians Little Sparta and Giles Perring.
[8] A series of major exhibitions planned to celebrate the artist's 70th birthday began in November 2020 with Jock McFadyen Goes to The Pictures at Edinburgh's City Art Centre,[9] followed by Lost Boat Party at Dovecot Studios, Edinburgh,[10] a retrospective, Jock McFadyen Goes to The Lowry at The Lowry in Salford, 2021,[11] and Tourist Without a Guidebook at the Royal Academy in 2022.