John McLean (artist)

John Douglas McLean (14 October 1944 – 27 August 2023) was a New Zealand figurative painter, stone sculptor, wood carver, author, and environmentalist.

McLean exhibited in New Zealand, Japan, New York and Australia, and work is held in private and public collections.

"[2] Although McLean's interest was art, his parents wanted him to get a "real job", and so, at their insistence, he trained as a teacher and taught in several schools between 1963 and 1970.

[1] In 1985, John and Chris McLean bought a 16-hectare (40-acre) farmlet overlooking the sea at Pukearuhe in North Taranaki, and tried to live as self-sufficiently as possible.

[2] The couple and their neighbour, the sculptor Howard Tuffery, replanted the riverbanks and wetlands with thousands of native trees, and protected those areas under a QEII covenant.

[1] The couple had three children: Taranaki artist Kirsty McLean;[7] Juliet, a singer and musician;[8] and Gregor, an environmental consultant.

[14] In 2012, McLean built and opened an art gallery next to his house in Mimi, to exhibit his own work, and that of his family (his daughter Kirsty and his partner Chris are also artists).