| Creating landscapes is a natural extension of
the other forms and genres that James employs .Working on canvas
in and near his St Petersburg home/studio allows the artist unconstrained
time and working conditions,and lends itself to study and constant
improvement in the other categories of art that include the landscape
as a primary or secondary element. James has taken as his mentor
the English master John Constable,who was the first painter to
do the majority of his work outdoors.His approach to the landscape
subject with his use of broken brushwork and looseness of his
approach imparted luminous effects not seen before. He prefigured
the French Impressionists by nearly a hundred years.
Landscapes are an integral part of much of James mural work in
Tampa/St Petersburg, but he also creates compositions on canvas
trying to purely recapture the land itself and to pay homage to
some of the beauty he sees in the Florida country side or to bring
home the vistas of places he has traveled and loved. |
