James D Wilson - The Sun Shone at Midnight
James D Wilson - The Sun Shone at Midnight
James D Wilson
The Sun Shone at Midnight, 2024
Acrylic and Soft pastel on gesso cardboard and wood panel
Artwork dimensions: 84 x 59.4 cm
Framed dimensions: 87.5 x 63 cm
Frame: waxed solid oak tray frame (38mm depth)
Signed, titled and dated on reverse.
About the artist
Wilson’s work explores the relationship between landscape, abstraction and memory. His approach always starts with a series of drawings, which have a provisional feeling to them, as though glimpsed whilst on the move.
Throughout 2023, he invested in a trip out of London at least 3 times per month for the year to see what effect it would have on his sense of place. By the end of the year, he had made 36 ‘field trips’ ranging in length from a matter of hours to several weeks. Naturally, perhaps, most of the destinations were within the British Isles, discovering/revisiting places just beyond his doorstep. Overseas, this took him to the Gulf of Morbihan in Brittany, across the fjords of Norway and island-hopping in the Adriatic.
Being in transit so frequently proved to be disruptive, leaving little room for working in the studio. With the self-imposed limits of time and luggage space, the act of drawing (mostly in sketchbooks) became the bulk of his practice. A year later, these travel sketches made whilst ‘on the road’ are being developed into studio paintings, larger format drawings and monotype prints. The trips continue, albeit at a more forgiving cadence.