At This House with James D Wilson…

Jun 17

James D Wilson visited the cottage in March. He caught our eye on several occasions with a bold use of dazzling colour and an unusual combination of painterly textures layered to recall snippets of landscapes.

Observing it I am reminded of the view you get from a train window. It's the kind of fragmented, hazy flash of colour and shape I love; glimpses of places that are not fully articulated but vivid in the way that memories often are.

The spring was late to arrive this year and weather was sporadic the week James came to work at the cottage. As always with the UK we worried about the rain and if he had brought any wellies. We needn’t have worried though: James brought with him an infectious sense of energy which overcame all weather related setbacks.

We met at the The Black Horse pub on his second evening of the week (a routine that is fast becoming a ritual for when artists come to stay) and over a few pints of Stroud brewery beer James got to know the family. Drinks turned into a dinner and conversation jumped from place to person and eventually to his obsession with growing chillies, which we talked about at length. The evening flew in a haze of energy reminiscent of his paintings.

Jame’s tenacity for making work and curiosity about the local area was exhilarating. It can be difficult to find your feet within a community like Stroud without knowing people; it’s a corner of the Cotswolds that whilst abundant with creativity, is hard to navigate when so much relies on word of mouth, paper news and spontaneity. This makes it an intrinsically special place, but can also leave outsiders scratching their heads.

James had done his research though, and had an extensive list of things to inspire his work.

In our opinion he absolutely perfected how to spend a week in the Cottage. We were so inspired by his enthusiasm for the area that I asked him to compile a breakdown for future guests. Here is what he sent us:

Some things I did:

Hetty Pegler's Tump (Uley Barrow)
Purton Hulks (Ships Graveyard)
Jolly Nice
Rodborough Common and around (the drawings are mostly from around there)
Train to Oxford to visit Irving Contemporary Gallery
Pangolin
Mark Stopforth's studio
The Wilson (Cheltenham)
Belas Knap

Places I ate:
The Black Horse
I had ham, egg and chips and a pint of bitter at the bar looking out into the valleys

The Woolpack Inn
I had:
- Glass of Viognier
- 2 rock oysters & cider mignonette
- Smoked cod's roe, radicchio and rye
- Whole plaice, monks beard and clams
- Lemon curd ice cream, pistachio langues de chat

William's Kitchen
I had fish of course

Winstone's Ice Cream

Other things:

I listened to Cider with Rosie on audio book
I read The Old Ways by Robert Macfarlane

Alongside all of this exploring was drawing. It seems this week coincided with a point of connection James had been forging for a long time between his painting and drawings. When I met him at the end of the week we talked of the importance of drawing from observation and how he organises a monthly portrait club (invite only for artists and designers in need of a place to practise with others).

Drawing is something like a back cloth for the tapestry of James' work. As is the case for so many artists, it sits as a constant tool to inform his practice, so it was wonderful to look at some of his sketches in person. Seeing drawings in this way, spread out on the work table with the pastels and pencil sharpenings scattered alongside them is like peeking into the back room of a theatre or kitchen. It's a vulnerable space, but from the comfort of the cottage feels homely and personal. I am struck with a sense that this exchange would be very different in a gallery or formal studio space.

Like a sprinkling of (chilli?) seeds the drawings he made on the residency have since grown and evolved into larger pieces. When I met James a few months later at an exhibition he said that he had arrived at This House with all sorts of plans for his work but it was the moments of reflection and play that have been most valuable since that week.

I remembered something my Dad had said to me once about threads of narrative which run through life and work. As we talked I relayed this idea to James in relation to making art and the poignancy of spending time identifying these threads and holding on to them. They are often little things you might find in an old box under the bed; things from childhood or past lives; they are glimmers of thoughts, patterns, colour palettes and objects that you once absorbed and now show up subconsciously in your work. The specific way you drew a tree in an old sketchbook from when you were 16 might miraculously appear 30 years later on a canvas and suddenly you feel as though the thing you needed had been there all along.

If you would like to see more of Jame’s work you can find him at the following exhibitions this summer…

Urban Art Brixton outdoor art fair 8/9th Brixton

‘Array’ a 4 person group show at Copper Beech Café in Dulwich (all of August)

And don’t forget to check his instagram for regular updates