James Stewart
From mermaids to toilet rolls, James Stewart openly calls his artwork ‘random’ saying he paints what he fancies, when he fancies it.
He has no political message to spread and there are no hidden meanings etched into his canvasses, he simply paints because it makes him happy and pays the bills. His relaxed approach has been no barrier to success; he has regular exhibitions in Devon and beyond with some of his work selling for £10,000 a piece. Steph Woolvin found him in his farmyard studio….
Originally from Stockport, James has been based here in Devon for over 15 years now. Both his parents were art teachers. His dad was head of art at Manchester Poly. He says it was a natural progression to follow in their footsteps but art was never forced upon him. “It’s like if your dad follows a football team – you just want to copy. They never discouraged me but never pushed me either. I didn’t know at the age of 10 that I’d be a professional artist; I wasn’t sat drawing when all the other kids were playing. I was a normal kid – building rope swings, playing ball. Being naughty and trying not to get caught!”
James Stewart
James Stewart
James Stewart
He trained as an illustrator in Wales in the 80s, then soon got a job designing theme parks for a company in Clapham, North London. “I did that for two to three years, it was all a bit weird – none of them were ever built!” He then moved to Manchester and became a freelance illustrator. He was self employed and got himself an agent, who happened to be Noddy Holder’s wife. (James says he never met Noddy but they spoke a few times on the phone.) This, he admits, was a bit of a wilderness time:
“I was a jack-of-all-trades really and master of none. I became a ‘Mr Fix It’ picking up second hand illustrating jobs where the original artist had failed to come up with the goods and the client wanted it put right.” James got a lot of advertising jobs in that way: “It was back in the 80s when computers were just becoming a big thing so I did a few pictures of computer screens which were used on an advert of some kind. Then the recession hit and everything went a bit black.” He ended up moving back to London and reluctantly started working for the theme park company again. “I didn’t want to, so I said if they wanted me they would have to pay me a lot of money, I can’t remember how much I put to them but they called my bluff and said okay! I only worked for them for while though before becoming a dispatch rider. I sped round London on my old Triumph!”
In 1990 James moved to Dartmouth to be with his parents and got a job at the Carved Angel washing dishes - a job which he loved and which helped him save up enough to pay off his debts and go travelling. He visited India, Nepal, China Indonesia and Australia and says the best bit was the freedom.
“It was far from luxurious, I survived on £5 a day! India was amazing, more happens to you in one day in India than six months anywhere else.” He travelled for two years and stayed in some of the worst hotels you will ever come across (his words!) down back alleys with no windows but he says when he was young these things didn’t seem to matter. “One of my best memories is travelling by bus from India to Nepal. I soon realised that these buses got very crowded and uncomfortable so I climbed onto the roof rack and spent the whole journey nestled amongst the luggage in the open air. I remember thinking, as we travelled along passing temples and mountains, that life probably wouldn’t get much better.”
When he returned to Dartmouth James decided to let go of the idea of getting a job and focus solely on his art. He soon established contacts and made friends with Mark Riley who owns Coombe Gallery in Foss Street and Annie Bowie who owns a gallery in Totnes. It wasn’t long before he was a regular exhibitor at both. “I sell most of my work during my exhibitions at the two galleries. I spend 90% of the year getting ready for them, then it all gets hung up and hopefully sold within a couple of weeks.” He likes to sell a minimum of 30 pieces at each exhibition and prices range from £500 to £10,000.
James openly admits he is a procrastinator and spends the morning making tea and laying out his paints. But once he gets going he will then spend a good eight hours a day at his canvas. He describes his work as eclectic pop art and has displayed his paintings in London and New York and at the prestigious BP National Portrait Award.
“They get about 3,000 entries so to be chosen and have my work displayed at the National Portrait Gallery was pretty special.” He says the best bit about being an artist is that you can play all day at your own leisure. “The down side is that you sometimes get the equivalent of writers block. There’s no point sitting at a blank canvas and hoping for an idea to come. The best ideas hit you when you aren’t looking for them – whilst watching a title sequence in a film or when you spot a fuzzy image out of the corner of your eye.”
He says he doesn’t think himself ‘high end’; he paints things that appeal to him, whether that’s a daisy in a glass or a woman with a surfboard at the beach, and he doesn’t expect people to stand in front of his pictures for hours pondering messages beneath. “I’m not looking for the meaning of life. I have no axe to grind. I leave all that to other people. I just paint things that interest me and hope people will buy it.”
2018 has taken James in a slightly different direction. He has written and illustrated his first children’s book, which comes out in September. ‘There’s a hole in my garden’ is about a boy who finds a small hole in his back yard and experiments by throwing small things in like sweets. Then he puts in bigger and bigger things until the hole is so big it can fit a dinosaur in.
He first met his publisher during an exhibition in Battersea. “Her interest confused me at the time because my exhibition hardly leant itself to cute innocent children’s illustrations! But she had faith in me.” He gave her the initial storyline and pictures and her company changed them slightly and the words have been Americanised as it will be published there first. James is thrilled he has had the opportunity: “For an illustrator doing a children’s book is the pinnacle, it’s the ultimate dream – it’s like performing at Glastonbury for a singer.” He hopes this could lead to more children’s books in the future.
Many of James’ paintings ara available from Coombe Gallery in Foss Street, Dartmouth 01803 835820
First published By The Dart magazine August 2018