James was raised in rural Kansas where he spent much of his childhood in the outdoors fishing, hunting, and camping. During this period he developed a deep admiration and respect for nature. James had some natural talent as an artist that became apparent before he had started school as a child. He was a rebellious kid which inhibited his artist training through high school and on into college. He wanted to do it his way. It wasn’t until he took a few workshops at the nationally known “Scottsdale Art School” with Professional Fine Artists that it all started to come together. He had previously studied over 2 years full time with a German teacher learning the Old Master’s techniques of drawing, nothing but drawing. As a Fine Art Painting Major at Arizona State University 1981 he learned about the concept of “ART” and Painting with their many facets.

In the years following his formal training James spent honing his craft. Part of his self imposed training included selling most all his belongings, buying a travel trailer and hitting the road with his dogs Romeo and Jack to paint all along the way. The first 3 years of his travel was spent mostly up in the National Parks and State Campgrounds with no hookups (elec., water, sewer). He was able to do some self examination and soon felt very close again with Nature. He’s still a full time "RVer," but he has found that he’s also inspired by many subjects in the City.

James’ usual way of working is to go out hunting for anything that inspires him; it could be a mountain peak in the distance, an unusual color or lighting situation, the actions of people or animals, flowers, etc. He lets his feelings be his guide. James likes to feel a sense of enchantment with his subject, it doesn’t always have to be happy, but it must touch him deeply in some way. At the end of the day when he returns to his studio he pulls out his field studies to see if he has any “keepers”. From this point he will look at the possibility of working one of these smaller works into a larger painting. It may sometimes take 100s of these to come up with something worthy of enlarging. At that point he uses his field painting as his main source of information with some use of other assorted sources (photos, slides, digital) to do a large painting. It’s James’ opinion that using much of any source other than life will kill any life in the painting. That “LIFE” is the top priority in his paintings.

When James embarked on his adventure of painting outdoors full-time he had difficulty purchasing equipment that fit his painting activities and style. He thus developed his own line of Plein Air Painting Materials ARTBOXANDPANEL.COM