Nothing swims easy Oil on wood panel, 18x24"
1. Cloud no.5 (sunbather) 2. Cloud no.4 (big wink) 3. Cloud no.3 (lint) About twenty smaller studies and experiments will be available for purchase online this Sunday, including these guys. Stay posted at jlee.ca/mailing_list β
James with Paintings and Newspapers by Andrew James Mckay Acrylic with graphite and ink on panel. 2023. Photo by Rachel Topham Photography
Andrew in Good Health Oil on wood panel, 16 x 20 in 2023
James: In 2023, my e-bud @andrewjamesmckay reached out about his forthcoming project, TΓͺte-Γ -TΓͺte. He explained that he would set out to paint about ten different artists, and they would all paint him. The thought of a space filled with portraits of him and him also being present was very funny to me and also very powerful of him. I couldnβt say no. For working reference, Andrew sent me a photo of him post-optometrist visit, pupils gaping, letting way too much of the world in. I loved learning from this painting and from talking with Andrew, but most of all, I love the painting(s) heβs made of me.
Andrew: In an effort to mitigate the basic ego-maniacal nature of the project, I was interested in also painting the artists who would be doing my portrait(s). Do artists have a special acuity in terms of sight? What impositions or inferences would each include in their portraits of me (and vice versa)? Would itβas James alludes toβlook totally mad having them all together at once, all shouting the same image in a variety of dialects? One thinks of the hundreds upon hundreds of portraits of Nicolae CeauΘescu, former Prime Minister of Romania. Despite now being generally unexhibitable owing to his late-rule conduct, they show him in innumerable circumstances and getting up to all kinds of wonderful things; apparently he hated all of them. As for me, I like James and I like the painting he did of me. I think he made something substantial out of what was a disorientating day for me, and it was a pleasure to be able to interpret him in his studio space to say nothing of this venture having provided an opportunity to have a colleague become a friend.
A Warm Evening, Like Many Others 9x62ft Assisted by Kaori Izumiya - This very very long wall sits in the Davies office on the 27th floor at 1501 McGill and was created to live alongside their private art collection, curated by the wonderful Florence-Agathe DubΓ©-Moreau
All my gratitude to the great folks at MU and Davies for making this possible and to Kaori Izumiya for also making this possible with her mega skills in painting and joking around.
Wobble Oil on wood panel 48 x 60in 2024
Working from a photo taken by my late father, I painted a moment from an epic banquet dinner we had together with his old friends, their wives, and their daughters. Through painting, through his eyes, I face grief and the memory of a difficult and regretful time. I spend time with him again in a sideways way.
The act of mining nostalgia and personal history is a destructive one. Missing pieces come into frustrating focus, inaccuracies congeal, and old feelings take new shapes. We can find illumination and healing through contemplation, but by re-experiencing the past, its original colour is altered forever.
- Iβm proud to share this painting and a few others with the support of Gallery PFOAC at Art Toronto, in the Metro Toronto Convention Center October 25th to 27th. Weβll be at booth A38. See ya!
lachine canal (plein air) oil on panel, 7.5 x 8 in, 2024 available
A little late but super proud to share my contributions to Artists Remaking Medicine by Emily F Peters and Procedure Press - a book on art's collaborative role in healthcare and medicine.
My favourite piece to put together (slide one) shows the story of Yoko and Avery Sen. Yoko is an electronic musician who fell ill and was bombarded by the dissonance of the ICU environment and relentless beeping of her monitoring equipment. She lamented what she thought would have been the final sounds she'd hear.
Thankfully, Yoko pulled through, and with her partner Avery, have since worked with one of the largest companies in this space to redesign their alarm tones.
The rectangular vignettes in this drawing are meant to mirror the rhythm of the monitor's beeping, as are the tiny highlights that curve across the layout within each one. I wanted to express the feeling of being with a loved one in the ICU; the warmth of old memories and the presence of those closest to you interlocking with the reality of an incredibly difficult situation and an annoying fricken beep beep beep beep beep beep beep
Thank you to the singular Joanne Lam for bossing me around