Biography

Born Wichita, Kansas 1948 American

Education:

University of Kansas BFA Graphic Design 1970
University of Colorado MFA studies Drawing & Painting 1974,1975

James began his career in the 1970’s as a designer and art director of print, film, illustration and typography. His work has won acclaim over the years with regional and national design recognition within the advertising community. James pioneered early computer generated motion graphics while in Hollywood, has a typeface design in his name, has been represented as an editorial illustrator, and was president of his own design firm for 15 years.

A few years ago, James began pursuing his lifelong interest in painting. The evolution of his painting has resulted in a body of work referred to as the Landshape series. These paintings are represented by Agora Gallery in Chelsea, New York City.

Artist Statement:

Unlike classical landscape painting, I have developed an intimate sense of the landscape by pushing my point-of-view into the center of natural, organic shapes, instead of pulling back into the distance. The landscape horizon then, is relegated to secondary prominence. Often the horizon is simply implied. The look at landscape from within these shapes separates my paintings from the paradigm of traditional foreground, middle ground, and background landscape imagery. I like to refer to these images as abstract realism – Landshapes.

While the paintings attempt to deal with the drama of composition, light and atmosphere, I also enjoy pushing my sense of color just off-center from the expected natural palette of earth tones. Not too far, but far enough to remove the viewer from their own sense of the natural, and introduce them to an undiscovered moment in nature.