Andrew James RP NEAC

From a very early age Andrew James shared a passion for art with his twin brother Paul. In 1987 he decided to pursue painting full time and at the age of 17 so he undertook a 10 year project to develop his work through self-directed study.

Winning the Carroll Foundation Award in 1998 helped bring his work to a much wider audience.  Election to the RP four years later  established Andy fully as a portrait painter. Further exposure came from a successful appearance in BBC 1’s Star Portraits with Rolf Harris.

Andy is a Member of the New English Art Club

Andy was elected Vice–President of the RP in 2008.

ANDREW JAMES PRICE GUIDE

Oil
20 x 16 inches £5,000
24 x 20 inches £6,000
30 x 25 inches £7,000
36 x 28 inches £8,000
40 x 30 inches £10,000
50 x 40 inches £12,000
60 x 40 inches £15,000

Drawing
from 10 x 12 inches from £1,500

This is a rough fee-guide for a single portrait. Frame, travel & accommodation expenses, and VAT are not included. For groups and non-standard sizes please ask for a quote.

METHOD OF WORKING

I work on about three sittings for which I am happy to travel.  Painting groups is not my forte but I can paint a posthumous portrait if necessary. I draw in any medium.

As a self taught artist I have sought to develop a particular use of oil paint as a starting point to much of my work. While drawing on a disparate range of artistic influences I have tried to achieve a particular synthesis of material and subject. These qualities could be summed up as forceful richness of illusion and surface as well as psychological depth.

I work from photographs, life and imagination: All are equal as the work’s outcome is all that matters. I add and subtract continuously until a satisfactory balance is achieved in my painting.

Painting Technique

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.

I am not currently registered for VAT.

• General Yakubo Gowon
• Sir Wally Herbert
• Charles Moore
• David Dickinson
• Tom Haywood

Solo Exhibitions:

• 2013, Contemptible Subjects and Other Things of Interest, Menier Gallery, London

  2006 Ashton Reloaded, Tunbridge Wells Museum and Art Gallery, Kent

• 2003 Mall Galleries, London
• 2003 Trinity Arts Centre, Tunbridge Wells, Kent
• 2002 Nick Whistler Fine Art, Battle, East Sussex
• 2001 Intrinsic Values – Joint Exhibition with Paul James, Ramsgate Library Gallery, Kent

Selected Group Exhibitions:

• 2017 Behind The Face, Trinity Theatre Galley, Tunbridge Well
• 2015 Through My Eyes, Gibberd Gallery, Harlow, Essex
• 2014 Family Familiar, RP Group Show, The Gallery, Winchester Discovery Centre, Winchester
  2013/15 Ruth Borchard Portrait Prize, Kings Place, London
• 2011 Pure Gold. 50 Years of the FBA, Mall Galleries, London
• 2010 400 Women , Shoreditch Town Hall, London
• 2006 to present New English Art Club, Mall Galleries, London
• 2005 Royal Society of British Artists, Mall Galleries, London
• 2005 Star Portraits with Rolf Harris, County Hall, London
• 2004 New Art Gallery, Walsall, Star Portraits
• 2002-2007 Nick Whistler Fine Art, Battle, East Sussex
• 2002 to present Royal Society of Portrait Painters, Mall Galleries London
• 1998/02 New English Art Club, Mall Galleries, London
• 1998 RP/BP Award, National Portrait Gallery, London
• 1997 Waterman Fine Art, Jermyn Street, London