James Cowan      Artist

Welcome to - About Me

I am a painter and printmaker who works mostly in the medium of oil, watercolour 
and etching. I studied at Chelsea School of Art and have a B.A.(Hons) 1st Class and an M.A. 
in Fine Art. I have exhibited extensively in a variety of solo and group exhibitions 
and have work in collections in the UK and abroad. 
As a teacher I have worked in different Colleges in the London and the surrounding area. I worked for a number of years as a visiting  A Level  moderator  for Edexcel  and was the Curriculum Manager for level 4 students at  Brooklands College in Surrey where I  taught painting, drawing, graphic design and printmaking. 
I was also for a period  the Course Leader for Fine Art at the Open College of the Arts and worked as their Assessment  Organiser, undertaking study visits and writing online blogs. 
I am currently working as a tutor with the University of the Creative Arts - Open College of the Arts.   

Artist’s Statement

 

 

As a Contemporary realist painter, I create images that are recognizable, believable and place the artist in his time and place. I take, manipulate and convert photographic imagery into the discipline of paint in a transformative process that is both traditional and contemporary. It updates previous stylistic and theoretical movements and connects the artist with the continuing tradition of painting. The human spirit is released through the process of making and the control of colour, form and content, regained, rejuvenated and restated by the artist’s hand.  Narrative and abstraction combine and a dialogue is open again with the art of previous generations. The means by which this occurs is seen in the depiction of objects, people and places done simply and without pretension. The importance of painting as a means of communication is restated and the teaching of this art practice is promoted as the primary method of intellectual visual enquiry.

 


 


  



  
 

 

Paintings and Prints