Interview with Sable Attelier (Freelance Art Journalist)

 

Sable: The paintings that you exhibited towards the latter part of last year were very different from the seascapes and landscapes that we have seen previously.What has influenced this new departure?

 

James:  This more dynamic less qualifiable work has been at the heart of my painting from the very begining.I have been developing this style long before I had any recognition with seascape and landscape work.

 

 

Arum Lily from the Hanging Gardens Collection Acrylic on Canvas 56x56 inch 2005

 

Sable: Does that mean that this work has been unseen and  slowly building up in the studio?

 

James: Yes and no. My reputation for seascapes had a snowball effect begining with early exhibitions.Once I had had a couple of well received seascape exhibitions my more abstract work became less of a signature style for me as an artist.When presenting new work to galleries for exhibitions I have always juxtaposed seascape with abstract so as to illustrate and promote both.There is a continuity and theme in the seascapes that lends itself to exhibitions which is why they have had more gallery exposure.Also I think that context and narrative is important to people in paintings and  the appeal of the abstract work is less quantifiable,more instinctive.There is a perception that it is more risky to show this sort of work.

Sable:It sound like there is a cuckoo in the studio nest? What has happened to this work?

James: Well, the strange thing is that there are actually more of my abstract pieces hanging in private and corporate collections than seascapes although I have only just started publicly exhibiting them again.Quite often a client will be drawn to my studio work as a result of exposure from past seascape exhibitions and have an idea for a painting for their collection based on what they have seen or read about. In a lot of cases they will actually be more interested in the abstract pieces and be surprised that they are! Their appeal is more intuitive and raw and their interpretation more personal and complex.

 

  

"Eeyore Eating a Snake" 24x36 Inches Finger Paint on Parcel Paper 1969

Sable: How have these two sides to your work come about? 

James: We had three resident artists at college two of which were sculptors and the third a landscape watercolourist.Even though I was more involved with painting at that stage, I had a strong peripheral awreness of bold structures in steel and fibreglass being created around me.There was a lot of teaching emphasis on early 20th century innovation such as in the work of  Andre,Tinguely,Calder,Caro,Mangold and Lissitzky.The Pompidou center in Paris was relatively new.There was no Tate in Cornwall and the St Ives Group were inspiring and homegrown.This early introduction to such inventiveness hovers just in the corner of my minds eye and inspires a constantly refreshing approach to painting and reminds me of the importance of artistic reflex over a more composed intellectual approach.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

" Ectostructure" Acrylic on Canvas 40x40 inches 1984

 

Sable: This explains the abstract work but you established a reputation with seascape compositions and have exhibited them widely over the last ten years.How did the abstract early work develop into the seas and skies for which you are so well known?

James: I worked for a photographer for a time whose work focused on the human form blended into the natural enviroment and at the same time was reading about Francis Bacon and his use of photography in his human painting studies.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Repose" Acrylic on Canvas 40x50 inches 1986

Paintings that emerged from that time were based on figures set against dunes and rock formations with the human form merging into the background colour and texture.This then developed into torsos half submerged in water and finally the human form became absorbed completely and they were islands.The whole scale altered as did the sense of perspective.The exhibition at The Orangery in 1987 was a very strange mixture of half revealed naked figures and fully developed seascapes.It was a solo show but could have been the work of two seperate artists.

 

 

 

 

 

   

 

 

 

 

 "Grape Bay"    Acrylic on Canvas    40x50 inches

 

 

Sable: So in a way the seascapes came about through a process of painting other subjects and not from an innate absorbsion in the subject?

James: Yes I suppose so but I have always had a passion for the ocean and for the drama of weather and sky. Growing up with the Northumbrian coast as a backdrop and with family in Bermuda I have been impressed with lasting images especially of scale and the incredible dynamic that strong horizons create.I actually don't place too much emphasis on geographical accuracy in each piece but hope to convey a sense of place.

Sable: This "sense of place" concept has come up in your other interviews and literature.How is that different from recalling scenes directly to canvas?

James: I am a studio painter and make no photographic or sketch preparations for my land or seascapes when I am taking it all in.The place is absorbed in its entirity with sight,smell,sound and mood.It is filtered and recalled with all of those elements implicit in the whole.I have heard other artists refer to it as capturing a hazy consciousness which I think is very apt.

Sable: Are there particular influences that highten awreness or intensify the memory that may later be translated into painting?

James:Much of my best work has come from moments of witnessing a view or studying a detail when alone.Whether it is a time of the day,a pattern in the weather or an unusual texture in stone or wood ,the moment is captured most clearly and more lastingly without the distraction of others.I think that I have a natural desire to convey visual experiences and moments but in the absence of others am able to translate it better later on canvas.Voicing or sharing it at the time somehow dilutes it and it becomes less significant,less mysterious.

 

 I studied the Renaissance and Baroque periods in History of Art and was always fascinated by the backgrounds almost  to the point of ignoring the symbolic foreground and subject. It would be impossible to list so many that are personally significant but there are Giorgione and Patenier postcards propped up with Martin, Turner and Gericaults in the studio.As for the dark and ominous skies that have dominated the latest series of landscapes  I would say that the seductive aspect of the landscape is in the variety of tones and moods that the sky gives to the terrain and its features and visa versa.Both influence each other powerfully but never more dramatically than when between storms or when clement and inclement weather collides. The combination of still and immenent is fascinating and again it is hard to pin point artists , but de Chirico, Tanguy and Dali have been long favourites as well as the Northern European artists Hammershoi,Kroyer and Spilliaert.

Sable: Are there any of your landscapes that particularly illustrate this and mark a change in the emphasis in your work away from the tranquility of the ocean blues?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"3 Mile Sky" Acrylic on Canavas

James: I am certainly not abandoning the tranquil oceans but find that painting in a variety of styles tempers each of them.It is easy to become fatigued by a single style which can then be reflected in the repetition of the work.Change and development is an inevitable organic part of all art and creativity.

" Beach Fire" is a real cross over from seascape to landscape and has a darker more potent feel as is "Cows" with its feeling of isolation and the tangible contrast of texture between the smooth paint of sky and mixed medium content of the steeply inclined hill . "Jura Storm" though is of special significance. Not only was it the first painting after the seascapes that was really true to the emotion of my idea of the landscape but was a breakthrough in terms of the dramatic use of black and dark umbers. It was painted without any specific geographical context but reminded me of The Isle of Jura, which I know well, in a very bleak January. The collector who bought the painting identified it with the Jura region on the route between Maçon and Dijon in France.I knew exactly what he meant and had driven through the region only some months before painting that piece.I think that subconsciously many places are projected through my paintings that may have been "filed" just out of the reach of my immediate recall.

 

 

 

"JURA" Acrylic on Canvas 30x30 Inches

Sable: You have worked on a variety of projects with prominent Interior Designers and Architects.We have talked about the spontaneity of your work so how does working with other professional designers sit with your style and approach to painting?

James: It may sound like a contradictory situation but in fact these projects have prompted some of my most interesting and inspired work.More often than not the projects have been centered around some amazing modern interior settings with almost film set proportions and the most exquisite of finishes and natural materials.I know that the lighting both natural and artificial will be optimized for the piece and can therefore focus on the intricacies of paint and texture.In most cases the paintings are large and more often than not will be the dominant piece in the room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Pollen" 50x50 Inches Acrylic, Black Pigment, Wax on Canvas

Not only do colours and textures in fabrics need to be translated but the texture of wood,stone and metal finishes need to be interpreted in terms of paint.Some fabric samples are incredibly intricate, made up of a myriad of different silks, and the best way to isolate the dominant colours is to literally shred them down to their component strands.The process is quite forensic in the early stages.

Working within tight paremeters of colour,tone and compositional balance to coordinate with already existing designs hightens the need for innovation rather than constrains it. It is a nervous process with delicate and exacting requirements but exciting and testing at the same time.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Bamboo and Pigment"

46x46 Inches Acrylic, Charcoal, Ochre and White Pigment on Canvas

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

" Winter" 40x40 Inches Acrylic and Wax on Canvas

 

Sable: What can we expect to see with new work in the coming year?

James: There is a quote that goes " An essential ingredient of any art with stamina is mystery". I think that this will be the thread that links new paintings in coming series.

to be continued.......