JAMES WILLIS LONDON PAINTINGS
‘What are the colours of the Thames? ....There is the silvery sheen to be observed at dawn or dusk in the estuary, an emanation of the light breaking through cloud onto the flat landscape. ....It can be the deepest green and the palest silver....It can be turbid, and muddy brown....In the shadow of a bridge it will sometimes seem to have become blue. Then, from a distance, its reaches seem like a thread of white.’
Peter Ackroyd, The Sacred River
Contents
James Willis – About Me
The London Paintings
Late Afternoon in the City
Thames, Afternoon Light
Approaching Rain, Westminster
Thames, Early Morning Light
Thames Looking East from Waterloo Bridge
Selected Exhibitions
James Willis CV
Thames, Early Morning Light under way 2014
JAMES WILLIS is an artist, art historian, author and educator from Hitchin in Hertfordshire.
Website: www.jameswillisart.co.uk
email: jameswillisartist@gmail.com
instagram: james.willis.artist
He studied fine art and music at the University of Chester followed by an M.A. in the History of Art at Birkbeck College, London. He is also a graduate of the Institute of Personnel and Development. Following a number of years working in the finance industry James decided to pursue his love of art and began what was to become a varied career working for several notable institutions including Sir John Soane’s Museum, the Old Royal Naval College at Greenwich, the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, and The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL and Makerere University, Kampala.
His enthusiasm for finding inspiration at home and abroad has been shared with many painting groups and travel companies. Alongside these arts and education projects he has always continued to make and exhibit his paintings. James is the founder of the Letchworth Arts Centre (Broadway Gallery) which he ran for nearly five years as an independent centre for the promotion and development of local arts in all disciplines.
In 2021 he co-founded Hitchin Creative, an organisation set up to support, promote and resource the arts community of the town. His work explores architecture from his travels and home town with a particular interest in capturing a sense of time and place. He has been described on more than one occasion as ‘’the Canaletto of Hitchin’’.
Recent exhibitions have included solo shows at The Coin Street Gallery, Oxo Tower, London, The Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich and The Nehru Centre, India High Commission, London.
His paintings have been twice accepted by the Royal Society of Marine Artists, and the Royal Institution of Painter in Watercolour for their annual exhibitions at the Mall Galleries, London. In 2014 he was one of 15 artists from England selected to exhibit at the Fabriano in Aquarello 2024 exhibition in Bologna.
The London Paintings
In his book, Thames Sacred River, Peter Ackroyd asks ‘What are the colours of the Thames?’. It is a question which stuck in my mind since reading his book several years ago. It Is this question that inspired many of these paintings. They celebrate London and in particular the relationship between architecture and the Thames and the effects of light and weather on them.
My starting point was one sunny May morning in 2013 when I found myself walking along the South Bank near to London Bridge Station just as The Shard was opening for the day. As there was no queue and the day was fine, I went up and asked if I would be allowed to make some sketches. The steward agreed and I was soon sitting on the floor by the full-length windows in the viewing gallery drawing the whole of London from Canary Wharf and the Greenwich Peninsular in the east to Westminster in the West.
The triptych format of these paintings is deliberate. Firstly, for practical reasons of transportation but mostly for the reason that to look at them means the viewer has to take a longer time to take in the image. It is like reading a book page by page rather than seeing one panel and moving on.
The paintings give you time to reflect and enjoy the peaceful atmosphere above the hustle and bustle of London. A brief moment to pause in your routine whether it be in an office, workplace, gallery or home and find something to connect you with the continuity of time and place.
I work with high quality, Artist’s oil paints which are richly pigmented to ensure the stability and permanence of the painting. They are supported on heavy cotton or linen canvases, prepared in the traditional way with gesso and oil ground. The integrity of the surface is important to me to give owners of my paintings the confidence that they have something lasting, created with care, love and vision.
Late Afternoon in the City 2014
Oil on Canvas 76cm x 142cm (84cm x 150cm framed)
£9,500
From a high office in the City, the later afternoon sun highlights many iconic buildings -The Gherkin, Heron Tower and Shard . Two churches appear as dwarves in comparison with the skyscrapers rising above them, St Botolph’s Without and St Helen’s Bishopsgate peeps out from behind the Gherkin.
This complex view records the rich pattern and texture of the City architecture and the maze of mediaeval streets which were fixed after the Great Fire. Tiny pockets of land are being developed accompanied by their resident crane yet the landmarks and river remain constant. To add a human element a group of tiny workmen gaze into a hole – their usual habit at the end of the day!
This painting aims to capture that golden light which occurs at the end of a clear day and illuminates the roofs and parapets of buildings or provided bright spots of reflected light in the glass and metal towers of the City.
Thames, Afternoon Light 2014 - Triptych
Oil on Canvas 51cm x 183cm (59cm x 121cm framed)
£7,000
The view looking south from the Liverpool Street area, across the Thames to the Shard. In the far left distance Canary Wharf towers appear and the eye travels west past St Paul’s Cathedral and towards Waterloo bridge in the far west. The Thames treads its way through the shimmering afternoon light linking the sunlight west end to the east becoming enveloped in the approaching clouds. Prominent in the centre are Tower Bridge, The Gherkin and the Nat West Tower – now surrounded by new buildings whose ground plan sites can be seen below.
Approaching Rain, Westminster 2014 - Triptych
Oil on Canvas, 61cm x 226cm (71cm x 236 framed)
£7,000
Stationed on top of Westminster Cathedral Tower I was struck by the expansive red brick Victorian apartment blocks and the fact that I could see all the same iconic skyline buildings. The weather was the type where full sun was immediately interrupted by torrential rain from black clouds and I wanted to capture some of this effect.
In the background we can see the tiny dome of St Paul’s Cathedral, The City skyscrapers beyond, Canary Wharf in the distant background, Westminster Abbey with the towers of the Houses of Parliament and The Shard beyond them, and on the extreme right Battersea Power Station before the chimneys were taken down. Even the London Eye peeps out from behind a tower block and the giant red cranes which seem to be permanent residents all across London make their presence felt.
Thames, Early Morning Light 2014 - Triptych
Oil on Canvas 51cm x 183cm (59cm x 121cm framed)
£7,000
The painting which started this series of London Paintings. It is both topographical in the traditional sense and contemporary in its expressive use of colour and paint textures.
The view extends from Westminster on the far left along the Thames to Canary Wharf and the Thames Barrier in the very far distance on the right. All along the river the new and old buildings exist together their styles and sizes providing some surprising contrasts. The view makes an impact with the early morning of the eastern side slowly changing to a mid-day intensity as you travel from left to right. I chose this device to suggest time passing during the day.
Thames Looking East from Waterloo Bridge 2014 – Triptych
Oil on Canvas, 61cm x 226cm (71cm x 236cm)
£7,000
The great width of the Thames is seen here between Waterloo and Blackfriars Bridges. From the South Bank on the right the Shard soars up behind the growing developments and the OXO Tower. In the distance Canary Wharf looms beyond the growing City Skyscrapers and St Paul’s Cathedral nestling beyond the tree lined Embankment. This is a working river, an artery through London where historic and contemporary architecture line its banks.
2024 Royal Watercolour Society (selected)
The Mall Galleries, London
2024 Fabriano Aquarello 2024 (selected)
Bologna, Italy
2022-3 Back to the Drawing Board (with Carl Laubin)
North Hertfordshire Museum, Hitchin
2019 & 2020 Royal Society of Marine Artists (selected)
The Mall Galleries, London
2019 Visions of Greenwich
Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich
2018 Hitchin Revisited
British Schools Museum, Hitchin
2015 The London Paintings
The Coin Street Gallery, Oxo Tower, London
2009 The Nehru Centre, Indian High Commission, London
2000 Recent Paintings
Letchworth, Arts Centre (Broadway Gallery)
The London Paintings at the Coin Street Gallery, Oxo Tower September 2015
James Willis CV Employment
Education and Awards
2006-2008 MA The History of Art, Birkbeck College, London (2006-208)
1990-1991 Institute of Personnel and Development (Grad)
North Hertfordshire College, Hitchin
1984-1986 BA (Hons) Fine Art & Music University of Chester
1976-1983 Hitchin Boys’ School
1986 Winner of the Bather (St Peter’s Saltney)
Prize
2023 Hitchin Historical Society Chairman’s Award for the Outstanding Visual Representation of Hitchin
2097 – present Freelance Painter, Art Historian, Author and Tutor
2020 – present Founding Director Hitchin Creative CIC
2014 – present Lecturer, Letchworth Settlement, Adult Education Centre
2012-2020 Visiting Lecturer, The Bartlett School of Architecture, UCL
2006-2015
Resident Artist and Educator
Sir John Soane’s Museum. London
2002-2005 Tutor & Head of Performing Arts
North Hertfordshire College, Hitchin
1997 -2002 Founder and Creative Director Letchworth Arts Centre (Broadway Gallery)
1997 Manager, Stevenage Artscape
1987-1996
Personnel Manager and Accounts Department Assistant Transamerica Commercial Finance
