James Guppy

Ascension 2006

acrylic on linen
106.5 x 71 cm

Cloudfront 2006

acrylic on linen
180 x 180 cm

Etiquette 2008

acrylic on linen
61 x 150cm

Spinosissima Altaira 2007

acrylic on linen
45.5 x 30 cm

James Guppy is a contemporary Australian artist living in a small coastal town in northern NSW. His medium of choice varies from painting to assemblage. The narratives which dominate his work use the traditions of western figurative painting to explore contemporary issues with a surreal and absurdist twist. These dramatic art works examine social issues through the lens of western art history. They reference artists and traditions such as J.M. Turner, Piero della Francesca, Dutch Baroque painting and the Pre-Raphaelites.

Guppy is intent on examining our secret inner lives. His relentless gaze fixes on the domestic, love and power, the body and our physical identity, gender, sexuality and taboos. His art ranges widely across the private dreams and nightmares of life in the twenty first century.

His work does not fit easily into the categories of western art. He is a figurative painter, a flower painter, a magic realist, but his paintings are postmodern and fetishistic. He is a surrealist and an absurdist who deconstructs the traditions of western art to create intelligent engaging artwork that can haunt and transform the way we subsequently see the world around us.

When we think of European art, one of the first images that comes to mind is of a richly coloured and modelled oil painting - a portrait, landscape or still life. The illusion in this painting is so real that we feel a heightened sense of the material world: the work seems to be a window into another space.

Throughout my career I have been asking myself whether this heritage has any relevance now. Since the development of photography, the role of figurative painting in portraiture and as social chronicle has all but died and the craft of illusionary painting has become largely relegated to the backwaters of romantic nostalgia and reactionary historicism. Painting in general will clearly continue; but have the figurative traditions of illusionism been technologically outflanked by photography, film and computer generated imagery? Frankly, I don't know and I sometimes wonder at the quixotic nature of my need to find a contemporary relevance for these pre-modernist styles of depiction. This site shows where I have gone in my search so far.

My paintings are all in acrylic. I love oils but the facility I gained as a mural artist working with fast drying paints means I can get the same effects as oils quicker, without worrying about the more complex chemistry of oils. I also get a sort of perverse pleasure creating paintings that can look like they were painted in one medium when in fact they were painted in another.

I use different strategies to develop the subject matter for each series of works. I begin with a point of fascination and the scent of an idea. This period of tracking down the vision may take weeks or years. I will return to themes from years ago if I think I might have something more to add or a new take on it. There is then a slow stumbling towards the form and how the idea or vision might be made to work successfully. Some works begin with thumbnail sketchs of inner visions and ideas with no models in the outside world (ie. It's all "made up"). As often as not, I am a merciless appropriator, constructing my paintings from details taken from old photos, old masterpieces, flower catalogues, magazines etc. Some works require the use of models either in conjunction with appropriated material or on their own. In these cases I will either photograph or work from life, whichever is appropriate.

The actual execution of a painting begins with a fairly clear vision. At any one time my studio walls are covered with many canvases in varying stages of completion. When I get "stuck" on a work, I either begin a new one or return to a piece in progress on the wall. I usually have about twenty canvases in various stages of completion. I get "stuck" a lot. Quite a few works "in progress" will actually end up permanently unresolved waiting in the reject pile till I can reuse the canvas.

The actual execution begins by covering the white gesso with a coloured ground. This might be anything from black, burnt sienna, terra verte or scarlet. I then carefully grid up my design and transpose it to the canvas using white conte. The first coat of acrylic is applied thick with no water. Subsequent layers are more and more diluted and the brushes tend to get smaller and more delicate as I progress. I usually varnish with two coats of dilute acrylic medium and a final coat of Paraloid varnish.

Paintings are rarely "finished" rather it's the case that I give up and hope that I can resolve the next one a little better. The work then is declared "finished" often by my deliberate signing of it. This stops dead any tendency I might have to continue toying with the piece.

James Guppy, 2005

http://www.jamesguppy.com/index.php