It's good to be back!

​I’ve been busy at the easel creating some new paintings. I’m back painting - woo! Painting was probably my first love alongside chimpanzees and ice cream! There are so many reasons why I love painting - its meditative process, how mistakes can be epiphanies and the hypnotic qualities of colour and texture.

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I have put my video practice on the backburner for now. One single image seems enough. Perhaps it’s in reaction to the deluge of moving imagery we see on a daily basis. Or a desire to slow down time. The year is almost over and exactly 12 months ago I started the Scuzzy Landscapes series with puppy Ripley at my side. She’s now been with us a year this week and is mellowing into the sweetest studio buddy. Here she is:

RIPLEY THE RETRIEVER :)

The Scuzzy Landscapes series name references our never really being in a totally natural landscape. They feature man-made remnants in their infinite forms, be it a demolished power station’s footprint on a beach, or candy-coloured plastic pipes snake-like in the grass. Each painting is named using the wonderfully abstract what3words app to locate exactly where the viewer is standing.

upper soup marine 2023 Oil on Canvas board, 30x40cm

I hope you enjoy the new direction my practice is taking. Best place to be kept up to date is to join my monthly newsletter here. And if you’d like to enquire about purchasing some work feel free to contact me direct or just to tell me what you think, what you want to see more or less of here or just to say hi here! Please note my website is very much in the process of updating so bear with me. kg

New Work Coming Soon

Due to various life barriers being chucked at me mostly outside of my control. But also in frustration and exhaustion, with an art world that expects artists and especially video artists to exhibit interesting relevant work with very little financial gain, I stepped back for a while. I took a full time job, got paid holidays, sick pay & a pension which I’ve never had before (which is boring but important to say). I didn’t make any work for a while but carried on taking photos as a form of instant sketching. But this year I’ve started making art again carving out time alongside the job and solo parenting duties and am making a totally new body of work in a new medium. I’m excited about this work and its potential. This picture is blurred on purpose ;) but watch this space. I’ll reveal it when I’m ready. And if you’re a gallerist or curator or just a make-happener :) and you’re interested in a chat please reach out. I miss you and it would be good to show together again soon. kg

Single Parent Project Zine

Really proud to have a beautiful etching of me and my son walking into the cloudscape with some copy I wrote featured in The Single Parents' Project first Zine put together by the wonderful and hardworking Rebecca Livesey-Wright chief mama and organiser of TSPP. Thank you Rebecca and you can find out about the project and can buy the zine here :)

First show of the year Jealous Gallery London

Back to School opens on 30th Jan at Jealous Gallery East and North, a show celebrating a decade of the excellent Jealous Print Prize awarded to MA art graduates. Each print is also in the V&A collection too. Lots of epicaly gorgeous prints available by recent/ish London art school graduates including my work Magic Spell made during my residency at their studio.

The Waiting Place Virtual Exhibition Remains Open

You can visit this joyful and mind bending exhibition here. Best viewed on a laptop or desktop through the chrome browser. Click Join Room and choose your avatar and clic click on the small rectangles by doors to get in to each room. Follow directions to see what keys to use to move around. Arrow keys and Q & E to turn left and right are the basics. Enjoy! https://hubs.mozilla.com/rtjWZYE/twp-entrance

The Waiting Place Online & IRL show at The Art Station, Saxmundham, Suffolk

Artists Opening 8-9.30pm on Saturday 8 May

Curators Tour 6pm on Sunday 9 May

We will be opening our doors for The Waiting Place physical exhibition on Wed 19 May. More details soon.

Over 80 artists, designers, writers, musician and creatives have responded to make a work

Henny Acloque, Bench Allen, Eilidh Allen, Ralph Anderson , Nigel Ball, Helen Barff, SE Barnet, Jordan Baseman, Katriona Beales, Jacq Bebb, Emilia Bergmark , Francesca Blomfield, Carla Borel, Matt Bowman, Sarah Bradley, Elinor Brass, Adam Bridgland, Elaine Brown, Rebecca Byrne, Perienne Christian, Veronique Christie, Max Clements, Lucienne Cole, Ham Darroch , Karen David, Jeff Dennis, Lauren Doughty, Annabel Dover, Sean Edwards, Liz Elton, Geraint Evans, Hannah Farthing, Dorothy Feaver, Stephen Feeke, Louise Fitzjohn & Liminal Gallery, Edwina Fitzpatrick, Nina Mae Fowler, Ryan Gander, Genevieve Gaunt, Tom Gidley, Mike Goddard, Emily Godden, Katie Goodwin, Alastair Gordon, Fiona Grady, Rahila Gupta, Isobella Hall, Rachael House, Hannah Hughes, Rowena Hughes, Ann-Marie James, Callum John, James Kessell, Paul Kindersley, William Kingett, Sharon Kivland, Sarah Kogan, Abigail Lane, Lana Locke, Anna Mac, Alexander Massouras, Justine Moss, Julia Muggenburg, Andrew Nairne, Clare Palmier, Elizabeth Pawle, Alex Pearl, Charley Peters, Naomi Polonsky, Katie Pratt, Emilie Pugh, Emily Richardson, Philippa Robilliard, Carl Rowe, Tim A Shaw, Michaela Shorb, Hannah Stageman, Holly Stevenson, Srin Surti, Adam Thompson, Maria Thurn Und Taxis, Elgin Thwaites, Cassie Vaughan, Marius Von Brasch, Arimathea Warren, Jane Watt, Emily Webb, Mathew Weir, Alice Wilson, Jess Wilson, Sarah Kate Wilson, Calvin Winner, Alison Wilding, Robyn Woolston

6x6 Project

I’ve been invited to feature on this excellent international artists’ moving image platform. A great way to view latest video artists work. 6x6 project

The Waiting Place - Online & Live Exhibition - Coming Soon

Dear friend,

I hope this finds you warm and well.

I am writing to invite you to take part in ‘The Waiting Place’, a collaborative project that I am curating in collaboration with artist Emily Godden and commissioned by The Art Station.

The project will combine mail art, a physical exhibition at The Art Station, an Instagram account and an online exhibition in a unique online environment called ‘The Waiting Place’ that will be designed by Emily (and will be very different from an ordinary website).

Contributors will include artists, writers, curators, actors, designers, musicians - creative practitioners from all fields. And though participants will be asked to send their responses on the back of the postcard provided, responses are not limited to visual art or 2D media such as painting, drawing and collage - writing as well as web links to film, video, music, animation or any other media are welcome (and encouraged!) 

This is a project about waiting, made during a global pandemic, at a time when we are all collectively waiting in so many ways. Waiting for things to get back to normal, for things to change completely, waiting for a cure, waiting to get sick, waiting to get better. Waiting for news from loved ones, and news from government. Waiting for test results, waiting to find work, and waiting in particularly long socially distanced queues at the supermarket. 

The poem on the postcard that will be provided is an extract from a children’s book called ’Oh, the Places You’ll Go!’ by Dr Seuss. If you haven’t read the book, I thoroughly recommend it, it’s brilliant. The book describes the journey of life, and was the last book published by Dr Seuss during his lifetime. 

If you’d like to take part in the project, please let me know your postal address and I will send you a postcard onto which to make your response, a letter of invitation, a very short form to complete, and return postage.

About The Art Station:

The Art Station is a non-profit arts organisation, developing a new workspace for the creative industries in Saxmundham and as a base for an arts programme for the local community and coastal Suffolk. More information on can be found online at theartstation.uk

I hope that you will join us for this project bringing together a very large group of artists and creative practitioners together virtually, via post, and eventually (hopefully!) physically.

With thanks, and love, and very best wishes,
Ann Marie James