Linda Mary James (born 1951,

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1. ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

) is an established artist who has been working in New Zealand for over twenty-five years. She creates large figurative paintings and

landscapes A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the p ...

Biography

Born in Birmingham, at the age of 2 Linda emigrated to New Zealand with her family. She attended th
School of Fine Arts
University of Canterbury and in 1983 received a Diploma of Fine Arts (Honours) for painting. She lives and works in

North Canterbury Canterbury ( mi, Waitaha) is a region of New Zealand, located in the central-eastern South Island. The region covers an area of , making it the largest region in the country by area. It is home to a population of The region in its current fo ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

Career as an artist

Linda James regularly exhibits her work and recent solo exhibitions include ''Out of the Chaos: Precious Lives'' (2007), ''New Zealand: Sleep in the Forest/Dreams of the Sea'' (2007), ''Love Story, Precious Lives II'' (2009) and ''Fallen'' (2010) all at the

Centre of Contemporary Art Centre of Contemporary Art (CoCA, formerly the Canterbury Society of Arts) is a curated art gallery in the central city of Christchurch, New Zealand. The gallery is administered by the Canterbury Society of Arts (CSA) Charitable Trust. Quarter ...

Christchurch Christchurch ( ; mi, Ōtautahi) is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand and the seat of the Canterbury Region. Christchurch lies on the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula on Pegasus Bay. The Avon Rive ...

. She has exhibited throughout New Zealand in solo and group shows, including the following galleries: Robert McDougall Gallery, Adam Art Gallery, Judith Anderson Gallery, Jonathan Jensen Gallery, Artline Gallery, Artspace. She has a number of paintings held in the public collection at Te Puna O Waiwhetu/Christchurch Art Gallery.

Awards

In 1989 James was the recipient of the

Olivia Spencer Bower Award The Olivia Spencer Bower Award is a residency opportunity for New Zealand artists. It is named after the 20th-century New Zealand painter Olivia Spencer Bower. About the residency The Olivia Spencer Bower Award was established in 1987. Art crit ...

, a residency directed specifically at emerging artists. Her work has been recognised in many other award competitions, including: *2006 Finalist, Waikato Art Award *2005 Finalist, Waikato Art Award *2003

Creative New Zealand The Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa (Creative New Zealand) is the national arts development agency of the New Zealand government, investing in artists and arts organisations, offering capability building programmes and developing markets ...

Grant *2002 Artist in Residence - Avonside Girls High School Christchurch *1993 Merit Award in Visa Gold Art Awards *1990 Participated in the Artists in the Sub- Antarctic Scheme *1983 BNZ Art Award (prints), Wellington

Artistic Style

In an early artist's statement James suggested her work was about "...the relationships between time, place and identity (when, where and who)...". Location continues to be an important element for James, and throughout her career the geographic context of New Zealand is evident within her work. Sometimes this is in a literal sense, drawing upon symbols from the New Zealand landscape (such as the native ferns in her exhibition ''New Zealand: Sleep in the Forest/Dreams of the Sea''). Othertimes, James's work speaks to its situation within the context of New Zealand painting, using a palette, scale and modernist aesthetic reminiscent of other New Zealand painters (such as

Rita Angus Rita Angus (12 March 1908 – 25 January 1970), a New Zealand painter, has a reputation - along with Colin McCahon and Toss Woollaston - as one of the leading figures in twentieth-century New Zealand art. She worked primarily in oil and water ...

, Nigel Brown and Michael Smither). Others have noted that her images are drawn from both art historical and media sources. These images are frequently figurative, such as her re-presentations of the portraits of Iraqi soldiers taken from newspapers or scenes of voluptuous and entangled bodies from classical and

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history The history of Europe is traditionally divided into four time periods: prehistoric Europe (prior to about 800 BC), classical antiquity (800 BC to AD ...

art works, such as in her ''Discord/ Out of the Chaos'' series.''Exhibition Out of the Chaos III''
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References

External sources

Linda James's official website

* ttps://web.archive.org/web/20080103224304/http://www.coca.org.nz/artists/A61_Linda_James.html Linda regularly exhibits in solo and group shows at COCA* McLeod, M. (1991) Three Women in the Sub an Arctic: Helen Mitchell, Gerda Leenards & Linda James, ''Art New Zealand'', ''59''. * Budgen, E. (2003) The Rules of Engagement: Linda James' Out of the Chaos, ''Art New Zealand'', ''108''. {{DEFAULTSORT:James, Linda New Zealand painters University of Canterbury alumni 1951 births Living people New Zealand women painters English emigrants to New Zealand