For Andrew James NEAC RP the act of painting is the materialised embodiment of his experience of life itself.
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Artist Statement
'For me the act of painting is the materialised embodiment of my experience of life itself: be it in the process of making it, the finding of value in it, accepting its inherent mysteries, these and other thoughts seem the perfect expression of my personal sensibilities and connections to the world around and within me. I seek the goal of a poetic compression of my emotional life through a heightened expression of colour, texture, pattern and rhythm. Intensity of mark making as well as infinite care in establishing value relationships marks the two extremes of my artistic and personal characters.'
Method of Working
'Using primarily oil paint, I work with broad, very direct, freely-applied gestural marks, through to finely modulated colour relationships - seeking a wide spectrum of painterly qualities. Whether work is large or small I establish major values, looking to subsequently model and create successful relationships without losing large structural forms. I paint with brush and palette knife, using the knife to subtract as much as to apply. I try to place stress on much of the paint through taught, scraped, pulled marking; rarely allowing any areas to go unworked or unstressed, a quality on energised density is very important to me. Colour saturation as well as tone and temperature have become ever more important as time has gone on. Paintings can take anything from 2 hours to 200 hours.'