PRESS RELEASE: BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA – 20 JUNE 2019 – Acclaimed artist opens doors to private gallery for two week solo exhibition
MEDIA RELEASE
Date: Thursday 20 June 2019
For immediate release
INTERVIEW & PICTURE OPPORTUNITY:
Location: 40 Exeter St, Ashgrove
Date: Friday 21 June 2019
Time: 10am – 4pm (By arrangement)
Subject: Jane James, acclaimed Brisbane-based artist
(Example images are provided with this release – Higher resolution images are available on request)
PICTURE OPPORTUNITY:
1. Hung and displayed artwork in private gallery
2. Artist in artist studio
3. Artist outside on leafy verandah
The artist shares her home with a number of reptiles, a german shepherd, and birds – animals may be available for participation in photographs (if they are feeling cooperative…).
BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA – 20 JUNE 2019
Acclaimed artist opens doors to private gallery for first time in 3 years for solo exhibition until 5 July
Brisbane-based internationally acclaimed Australian artist and marine conservationist Jane James, will open the doors to her intimate private gallery from Friday 21 June, for a two week solo exhibition of her most recent series of work – ‘Seven-Tenths’.
Beneath the leafy canopy of the inner-city Brisbane suburb of Ashgrove, an old Queenslander-style home will play host to the exhibition of underwater art that will stay with you well after your visit.
Blending science, art and a passion for the conservation of ocean and marine environments, this latest series has been five years in the making and the culmination of a lifetime spent in, on and beneath the ocean surface.
Leonardo Da Vinci, Snell’s law, a 150 year old collection of glass marine invertebrates, and a world leader in paint technology were critical factors to the development of the latest exhibition from James.
Researched meticulously over five years, primarily around Lady Elliot Island, the paintings and sculptures provide abstract views of the reef. Depicting various surface conditions, reef systems and depths captured during drift diving over large areas of the reef to record the images.
James also discovered an interesting fact during her research, if you drift with rope in the water – a feature included in much of her work and a part of her collection of reference images – you can expect to get cosy with the local sharks.
“Three different locations, three different years – and every time that I drifted with rope in the water, I had these guys for company. I wondered if I was imagining it, until I discovered while researching the way fish aggregation devices work that fish and sharks are fascinated with floating objects. So, if you want a shark for company, take along ten meters of rope….you’re welcome!” she said.
The daughter of a cargo ship’s captain, James worked both on and under the water herself as a skipper and dive instructor before focusing on her artistic career. As an artist, she has continued to dive regularly.
“The ocean has been my lifelong love, my place of solitude, and where I have faced my own mortality on more than one occasion,” she said.
Despite having spent so much of the last thirty-five years underwater, James has seldom painted underwater scenes or subjects over an artistic career that has spanned nearly twenty-five years.
“I felt that I lacked the techniques and skill to capture the viscosity, weight, and presence that the underwater environment has. For a long time as an artist, I felt the sensation of being underwater was something I couldn’t visually do justice to.” she said.
It was during a visit to Corning Muesum in upstate New York after seeing the 150 year old Blaschka collection of glass marine invertebrates, that James began to consider how she might address the challenge of doing these images justice. The exquisite pieces of the Blaschka collection are perfectly and painstakingly rendered. They are so accurate, they are now used to help assess the effects of climate change on invertebrate species over the last century and a half.
It was a desire to use her realism based style to capture the underwater reef environment in which she had spent so much of her time, as it is now. Her work serves both as a statement about the fragility of the reef and to bear witness for future generations of what our reef is today.
Drawing on her intimate knowledge and experience of the underwater environment, in 2014, James began to collect reference material. Looking to science and technology to allow her to better convey the sense of being underwater in her work.
The semi-circular view of the sky which features in each of the painting in the series is called Snell’s window. When looking upward underwater, refraction concentrates the sky into a 97 degree ‘cone’ allowing the viewer to see a circle spanning the horizon. The law of refraction on which Snell’s window is based were discovered by Willebrod Van Roigen Snell, James researched both the laws and the way in which these laws impact how images are seen underwater.
A month long residency at Golden Paints in New York in 2016 provided James with the opportunity to refine a unique technique for her paintings in this series. Overlaying multiple layers of polymer, giving an effect similar to three dimensional lenticular imagery, she has been able to provide an unusual and rich sense of depth to each piece.
“It was such a wonderful opportunity to work with paint technology experts to refine a technique that would do justice to the complexities of underwater images,” she said.
James has seen enormous changes and a decline in the health of the ocean and reef environments in which she has worked for the past thirty-five years and she would like to see her latest exhibition raise awareness of the fragility of the Great Barrier Reef in particular.
“Seven-tenths of our planet is ocean, I want these works to stand as a call to action. The time to act to protect this vulnerable ecosystem is now and the daily choices we all make impact it.” she said.
The exhibition opening will be held on Friday 21 June 7pm-10pm and the Exeter gallery will be open daily at 40 Exeter Street, Ashgrove, between 10am – 4pm from 22 June until July 5th. Guided tours with the Artist are available on request to all visitors, and no appointment is necessary. Viewing outside these hours can be arranged by calling 0438311530.
The exhibition includes paintings, slumped glass and cold cast bronze pieces. A full catalogue is available on request.
For more information and to interview Jane James please contact 0438311530.
The stories and science behind the series are provided here: https://spark.adobe.com/page/JkQ5z0NRBUVng/
Additional information on the exhibition is available here: https://spark.adobe.com/page/EQCHbf9qSMv1l/
About Jane James
Jane currently lives and works in Brisbane, Australia. She received her degree in fine art from the university of Tasmania. Jane has a lifelong involvement with the sea and marine conservation. She is an exhibiting member of the Australian Society of Marine Artists, and travels teaching marine art. With work held in private collections internationally, Jane has won many awards for her work both in Australia and overseas. Please see www.janejames.com.au for more information.
Jane James
www.janejames.com.au