James Knowles Biography
I attended Art College in South East England in the late 70’s after excelling at art in my early school years. I knew I wanted to use my creative gifts somehow in life, but lacked the experience to know exactly how to go about applying them. This lesson in life is still going on. perhaps it never ends! I have however applied myself to oil painting over the years as you can clearly see.
I have exhibited and sold my work in Canada, America, Mexico, Spain, and the UK. My early works respond to my formative years as a child, growing up in Kent, the so called “Garden of England”. Large floral pieces, nature seen through the eyes of a small child, playing, as I did in my English country garden.
Since those early experiences I have broadened my horizon, traveling the globe, living and painting in Canada, Mexico and Spain . My subjects have also broadened, and one can see the journey expressed through the work.
Although situations have changed, and sometimes quite dramatically, I can say that my love and desire to paint has remained the same. My passion for, and fascination with life, goes on and lives on in my work, my lack of experience in those early years now replaced with a comforting knowledge and confidence.
Over the years I have become familiar enough with my materials and tools that, for the most part, I no longer need to put much attention on these distractions. I am now free to explore my creativity, envisioning and discovering as I paint, manipulating colour and light on the canvas as I go. My sources are as varied as my works, and often impossible to predict, something I see, feel, or hear, something that stops me in my tracks, that perhaps the rest of the world has missed. I feel that I have now achieved a high quality of production that is consistent, that will stand the test of time both in physical and spiritual terms.
My entire collection of work is online at www.jamesknowles.com
