Dates: 29.07.2014 – 14.08.2014

James started as a hand painting signwriter but has been painting full time for the last three years.

For the last year he has been instructed on some of the finer points of mark making at the Spencer Street Studios in Salt River, under Julia Teale, which has opened up a new dimension in his work.

He explores the beauty of shape, colour and contrast of sometimes overlooked views, where man has made his mark in nature and nature surely reclaims the space. There is an alternative world here, which is wild. A wilderness that is just over the fence of mainstream urban life, or right within it and from this point of view the mainstream is being explored.

“This for me is a big topic and I am only just entering into the debate, exploration and interpretation of it. The view I develop is one picture at a time. As my investigation deepens, I will find more words to describe this world and certainly find ways of painting it. At times it is an abstract search for an academic title or a string of words to accompany a painting. I can debate this need. There is a mood I personally pick up from the space, the view, when I am there. This is the source. This mood changes as I manipulate my material into brush work, and changes again when I look at a finished work, contemplating what I will do to the next surface; which changes the way I look at the source when I return, or go somewhere else.”