About the Artist

Links
The Glasgow Group    
Scotland's Artists

jamesspence

Philosophy
I have had a strong preference for 'organic form' human and animal in contrast to man made mechanical form eg still life. I am also aware there are many modern artists, whom I greatly admire who have experimented with abstract forms. All art, of any value must have an abstract element in it, if it is to be successful in expressing its raison d,etre.

Subject Matter
The messy untidiness of human life, on one hand ridiculous & comic on the other, struggling, anxious and sometimes tragic. This is my subject matter. No romantic dreaming or glamour. The human figure before being tidied up, polished, or glamourised, the moment in time, before becoming aware of being looked at. Unexceptional people, the silent people of history, confused humanity, - it is almost impossible to recover the genuine history of the ordinary man - an individual whose life, after hard struggle, passes away with little or no notice.

Method
I paint what I observe and know of their life and mine, observation and experience. I am particularly fascinated by structure and formation of the human head and hand. I try to use the creases, hollows, baggy skin folds around the fingers, joints, knuckles and wrists. It is amazing at an emotional and expressive level, how much the movement of heads and hands reveal about the individual person.

Background
Born Glasgow 1935.
Educated Glasgow High School for Girls, and Hillhead High School.
1953-1958 Glasgow School of Art
1957 & 1958 Hospitalfield Art College, Arbroath

Taught in schools as Assistant Teacher of Art, Hyndland School, Garnet Hill Convent, Notredame Dumbarton, Dumbarton Academy, Principle Teacher of Art, Jordanhill College School.

Selected Public & private collections

Scottish Arts Council Arts Council, Northern Ireland Pitlochry Festival Theatre Glasgow Art Galleries East Kilbride Borough Council Dumbarton Education Trust Argyll Education Trust Fife Education Authority Links House Collection Scottish Television Inverness Art Gallery

Dundee Art Gallery New York Print Workshop BBC Collection Nuffield Foundation Britoil Foundation People's Palace, Glasgow Hunterian Museum Fundacion Alzate, Bilbao Jordanhill College Collection Aberdeen Art Galleries

Awards 1959 - 1996 Royal Scottish Academy Muirhead Trust, 1959 Latimer Award 1961 Glasgow Civic Prize 1964 Ann Redpath Award 1971

Solo Exhibitions Charing Cross, Glasgow Scottish Gallery, Edinburgh Lillie Art Gallerys Roseangle Gallery, Dundee Compass 1971 & 1998