Kristina McLean at House of Art
October 20, 2026 By Community Editor Erin Elefante
Kristina McLean, a Barcelona-based artist who once called Hingham home, returned to town last month for the opening of From Memories, an exhibition at House of Art in downtown Hingham. The show features paintings inspired by the places and experiences that have shaped her life, including memories of Hingham.
Kristina McLean and Emma Richardson
McLean lived in Hingham from 2013 to 2020, and all three of her children were born here. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she and her husband, John, decided to move to Barcelona for what they expected would be a year abroad.
“We had wanted to live abroad and thought a year in Spain during a pandemic would be a fun family adventure,” McLean says.
McLeans moving to Barcelona in 2020
Before they knew it, one year turned into two, then three. Six years later, the family is still in Barcelona, immersed in the local culture.
Their children, who were 7, 5 and 11 months old when they moved, now attend local schools where they speak Catalan and Spanish. At 13, 11 and 7, they are bilingual and have built a large network of Spanish friends and activities.
McLean and her husband were both working U.S.-based jobs when she decided to make a career change. Stepping away from her background in finance, she embraced her creative side and launched a business helping Americans relocate to Barcelona. She found that clients were also turning to her for help with interior design decisions, something she had always enjoyed.
McLean family
She considered returning to school to earn a design degree before realizing she wanted to explore another creative pursuit.
“If I’m going to be paying for school, I would really like to try art school,” she recalls thinking.
Although she had been painting casually, McLean felt ready to take the next step. She enrolled at Metàfora Contemporary Art School in Barcelona, where she discovered the city’s art scene and experimented with a variety of mediums, including metal, woodworking, plaster and sound, before focusing exclusively on painting.
FINALLY MADE IT: Inspiration; The first days of spring at the beach – Those first warm days when everyone heads to the beach even though it isn’t really summer yet. I was thinking about that feeling of finally coming out of winter and seeing the landscape start to change. (Photo credit to Kjeld Mahoney)
Her artistic process begins with the canvas on the ground, where she uses watery paints to create organic shapes. While painting, she found herself drawing on her memories, with Hingham frequently coming to mind as she worked.
“What kept coming up in my work were memories of landscapes and familiar places from different periods of my life,” McLean explains. “A lot of them are places I walked regularly, or just places I saw over and over as part of everyday life. I think there’s something about that repetition that makes a place become part of your memory.”
McLean learned about House of Art through Hingham friends and had been following the gallery on Instagram when she noticed a call for submissions. She connected with gallery owner Emma Richardson and shared photographs of her work. Richardson invited her to participate in From Memories, which opened Sept. 25 and also features local artists Virginia Mahoney and Robert Priest.
Richardson describes the exhibition on the gallery’s website as bringing together three artists who transform recollection into art, exploring “how memory lives in the body, in landscape, and in the quiet marks we return to over time.”
For McLean, the exhibition offered an opportunity to bring her work back to a place that continues to hold a special meaning for her.
WORLDS END: Inspiration; Walks at World’s End with my kids when they were little – World’s End was a place we returned to again and again, and it always felt like an escape. These paintings come from memories of those walks and the colors, patterns and small details of the landscape that stayed with me. (Photo credit to Kjeld Mahoney)
She enjoys returning to Hingham to reconnect with friends and visit favorite spots, and says the town “still feels like home.” Seeing paintings inspired by her memories of Hingham displayed on the gallery walls made the experience particularly meaningful.
“I loved connecting with Emma and the other artists, and having so many people I loved there was so special,” McLean says.
Although her paintings draw on specific places, McLean says they are not intended to be literal representations of the landscapes she remembers, but rather a way to revisit different chapters of her life and appreciate experiences that have shaped her.
“The paintings aren’t meant to be accurate depictions of those places. I’m really interested in what we actually remember—what stays, what disappears, and how places get mixed together in our memory over time.”
“For me, painting has become a way to revisit those periods—to bring the things I miss with me, to think about who I was then, what’s changed and what’s been left behind, but also to feel grateful for all of those different periods of my life,” she says. “So it feels especially meaningful to be showing this work here in Hingham, because Hingham is, of course, one of those places for me.”
PURPLE HAZE: Inspiration; Farms and fall in the Northwest and New England – I grew up on a small farm in the Northwest, and years later drove past Weir River Farm almost every day while living in Hingham. I love fall in both places, and this painting brings those different memories of farms, changing color and familiar landscapes together. (Photo credit to Kjeld Mahoney)
As for the family’s future, McLean says time will tell where they ultimately settle. They still own a house in Hingham and feel confident that it would be home if they return to the United States.
“We love Hingham; we love Barcelona,” she says.
Judging by the packed room and the many happy reunions at the exhibition’s opening, Hingham loves them back.
House Of Art
From Memories will be on display and for sale at House of Art, 102 North Street, through Halloween. You can find more information at House of Art and by following McLean on Instagram at @KristinaMcLeanArt.
McLean’s Must-Do’s When Visiting Hingham
- Lunch with friends at Square Café
- Walks on Nantasket Beach and at World’s End
- Breakfast at Stars
- Grabbing a coffee and strolling through the shops in downtown Hingham
- A Euromart sub, because “you can’t get a sub like that in Spain”