James paints in oils but first develops his ideas in sketchbooks before setting up his compositions in the studio with models and home-made props. As they progress, his paintings move away from being purely from direct observation towards memory and imagination, which is where the full range of influence is felt, from traditional Asian art to mediaeval manuscripts to children’s drawings.
James revises his paintings substantially, giving them latitude to change and depart from the original motif - a method inspired by Giorgione and Georges Braque. Objects, locations and figures might be painted out or in, canvases re-stretched and colour schemes completely altered. The alchemy of this unpredictable process is what gives each painting its unique character and excitement.
Born 1979, Grimsby
Membership of Societies
New English Art Club, from 2014
Contemporary British Portrait painters, from 2019
Solo Exhibitions
2022 Awakenings, Tregony Gallery, Cornwall
2019 Altogether Elsewhere, Gallery 286, London
2019 Paintings 2019, Lilford Gallery, Canterbury
2017 Illuminations, Lilford Gallery, Canterbury
2017 An Artist in a State of Flux, Natsoulas Gallery, Davis, California
2015 Letting Light In, Lilford Gallery, Canterbury
2007 Wolfson College, Oxford University
2003,05 Darwin College, University of Kent
Awards
2015 winner, Doreen McIntosh Prize
2014 runner-up, Visitors' Choice Award, Threadneedle Prize
2013 1st Prize winner, Winsor & Newton Oil Painters Award
2007 winner, Janet Konstam Travel Award
2007 winner, Artist Residency, Centro Verrocchio, Tuscany
Bibliography
2020 Petit Lisy, Barbara, L'Enfance De L'Art (interview), Pratique Des Arts no.155, January 2021, pp. 36-41
2020 Bland, James, Four-Colour Experiment, Artists & Illustrators, January 2021, p.57
2019 Seed, John, Disrupted Realism, Schiffer ISBN 0764358012
2019 Pill, Steve, James Bland (interview), Artists & Illustrators, August 2019
2018 Podlesnik, Joseph, Observational Drawing, Tempe Digital ISBN-13 9780986163753
2017 Morton, Walt etc., Poets Artists #86, The New Nude
2016 Bland, James, Imaginative Painting, Artists & Illustrators, December 2016, pp. 76 - 78
2015 Vann, Philip, James Bland in the Ruth Borchard Collection, 01 January 2016
2014 Bland, James, Introduction to Villaggi, Galleria Elle Arte, Sicily by Ilaria Rosselli del Turco
2014 Eaton, Terri and Pill, Steve, Ones to Watch, Artists & Illustrators, April 2014
1993 Bland, James, Pilltris (Type-Ins), Amstrad Action #92
Selected Group Exhibitions
2022 Contemporary British Portrait Painters, The Dept Store, Brixton, London
2022 Contrast & Connection, Contemporary Six, Manchester
2021 Now We Are Six, Islington Arts Factory, London
2021 One: Single Object Still Life, 155a Gallery, London
2021 Contemporary Landscape, 155a Gallery, London
2021 Portraits in Isolation, the CBPP with the Net Gallery
2020 Heatherley's Staff Exhibition, Bankside Gallery, London
2020 - 2023 Assemble, Tregony Gallery, London (various)
2019 Disrupted Realism II, Stanek Gallery, USA
2019 - 2022 various, Tregony Gallery, Cornwall
2019 Art of Painting Conference, Natsoulas Gallery, California
2018 Disrupted Realism, Stanek Gallery, USA
2015 - 2020 International Figurative Biennale, John Natsoulas Gallery, California
2013 - 2021 New English Art Club, Mall Galleries, London
2017 - 2018 Royal Society of Portrait Painters, Mall Galleries, London
2017 Honouring the Legacy of David Park, Santa Clara University, California
2017, 2014 Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize, Mall Galleries, London
2015 ING Discerning Eye, Mall Galleries, London, by invitation
2014, 2013 Royal Institute of Oil Painters, Mall Galleries, London
2014 Threadneedle Prize, Mall Galleries, London
2013 Ruth Borchard Self-Portrait Prize, King's Place, London
Academic Qualifications
2004 MA Fine Art, Canterbury Christchurch University
2002 BA (Hons) 1st Class in Fine Art, Canterbury Christchurch University
1998 Diploma in Fine Art, Grimsby College
Teaching
2022 Penn Studio School of Fine Art
2020 - 2022 The Winslow Arts Center
2014 - 2017 Art Academy, London
2016 Grande Borie, France
2014 - 2015 Arts in Provence, France
2010 - 2014 Kent Adult Education
2008 - 2009 Centre for Flexible Learning, University of Kent
2007 Canterbury Christchurch University
