Life Drawing Andrew James
The Royal Society of Portrait Painters’ vice president reveals how growing up with an artistic twin inspired his fascination with portraiture
For me, self-portraits are a chance to look at the formal side of painting. There are also moments of self awareness when you think about yourself, thinking about yourself.
I’ve always been fascinated with painting people. There was just an inner magnetic attraction to people as a subject, maybe it came from looking at a twin brother all my life. It helps having someone growing up with you in parallel every day, reading their face.
I come from an ultra working class background. There was no resistance from my parents about pursuing a career in art but also no constructive help because they were at a loss to know what to do anyway.
My brother was better at times at drawing than I was. We mirrored each other’s enthusiasms and there was an element of competitiveness but it was supportive rather than destructive. He has lived away in North
America for 20 years but he has been 100% my greatest support and reference point.
Rubens and Rembrandt were the fi rst artists that captured my imagination. I admire Rembrandt’s extraordinary ability to comprehend what it is to be human and somehow capture it in a use of the materials that seems so completely right.
I briefl y attended art college. It was a graphic art course, rather than fi ne art. I didn’t really do much and it petered out very quickly in a few months. It was a taste of what could have been if I’d been a bit more mature.
I trained instead as a carpenter and joiner. I’ve saved lots of money in terms of framing and stretching canvas. It’s useful as far as seeing things three dimensionally is concerned and helps me bring a sculpted, rough-hewn quality to my painting, too.
There have been three major turning points in my career. One was aged 17, when I got a deep, instinctive feel that I could become an artist. The second came aged 24 or 25, when my use of materials seemed to crystalise into something stylistically.
The fi nal landmark came two or three years later. I won the Carroll Foundation Award from the Royal Society of Portrait Painters. I’d had such an isolated development for so long but that really was a confi rmation.
Teaching is an art in itself. Every student handles materials in their own way and I encourage them to go with it, not create a strict formula for how to become an artist.
A sense of underachievement seems to nag away at me all the time. It’s always something that unsettles me in a good way and drives me on to try and work hard. I don’t know whether I should have done more but there’s still plenty of time, I hope. Andrew is teaching three portrait painting courses with Arte Umbria in September and October. For details, visit
www.arteumbria.com
82 Artists & Illustrators
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