Linda Mary James is an established artist who has been working in New Zealand for over twenty-five years. She is most notable for her large figurative paintings; however, she also has an established reputation for landscape paintings.

Biography

Born in Birmingham, at the age of 2 Linda emigrated to New Zealand with her family. She attended the School of Fine Arts, University of Canterbury

University of Canterbury

The University of Canterbury , New Zealand's second-oldest university, operates its main campus in the suburb of Ilam in the city of Christchurch, New Zealand...

 and in 1983 received a Diploma of Fine Arts (Honours) for painting. She lives and works in North Canterbury

Canterbury, New Zealand

The New Zealand region of Canterbury is mainly composed of the Canterbury Plains and the surrounding mountains. Its main city, Christchurch, hosts the main office of the Christchurch City Council, the Canterbury Regional Council - called Environment Canterbury - and the University of Canterbury.-...

, New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

.

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

The Centre of Contemporary Art is an art gallery in the central city of Christchurch, New Zealand....

 in Christchurch

Christchurch

Christchurch is the largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the country's second-largest urban area after Auckland. It lies one third of the way down the South Island's east coast, just north of Banks Peninsula which itself, since 2006, lies within the formal limits of...

, New Zealand

New Zealand

New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

. 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 Art Award, an award 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
  Creative New Zealand
  The Arts Council of New Zealand Toi Aotearoa is the national arts development agency of the New Zealand government, investing in artists and arts organisations, offering capability building programmes and developing markets and audiences for New Zealand arts domestically and internationally...
  
   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

Rita Angus was a New Zealand painter born in Hastings. Along with Colin McCahon and Toss Woollaston, she is credited as one of the leading figures in twentieth century New Zealand art...

, Nigel Brown

Nigel Brown

Nigel Roderick Brown ONZM is a New Zealand painter living in coastal Southland whose work is mainly about the history of New Zealand and its natives. As a young boy he spent much of his life growing up in a packing shed in Tauranga...

 and Michael Smither

Michael Smither

Michael Duncan Smither, CNZM is a New Zealand painter and composer.He was born in New Plymouth and was educated at New Plymouth Boys' High School and Elam School of Fine Arts, Auckland...

).

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

Renaissance

The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...

art works, such as in her Discord/ Out of the Chaos series.

External sources

• Linda James's official website
• Linda James's profile on Artists.co.nz
• An online gallery of selected work from 1986 - 1992 by Linda James
• 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.