StateoftheART is excited to present to you an all new Studio Feature for 2018! James de Villiers gives us exclusive insights into his studio space, history and art making process.

Favourite material to work with?
Oil paint. I make my own for smaller work and where I
require special colours. I also use commercially available paints for my larger
paintings especially the impasto abstracts. I often enhance the commercial
paint with extra pure pigment.
What themes do you pursue?
Decay, energy flows, movement, change, the layering of
history on the landscape, still life, skies (The Architecture of Air)
How many years an artist?
I've had an interest in art since my early teenage years
when I was inspired by my mother to start painting, but I only started
seriously painting from the age of 23. This means I have been active as an
artist for forty years. This has not been a continuous activity however. From
the early 1980's it became more consistent until the last five years or so when
art making has become a full-time occupation.
What should people know about your art that they can’t tell
from looking at it?
There is a large amount of research and observation that has
gone into my work. Over the years I have looked for the most efficient and
interesting ways of expressing myself. A large part of my work is directly
influenced by my interest in archaeology, science and music.
Which living or dead artist would you most like to meet?
A difficult question as I admire so many, but William Blake
would be at the top of the list. From school-days he has had a profound
influence on the way I look at the world and influenced some of my behaviour
and the way I approach painting.

Tell us about your studio. Location, clean, cluttered, big,
small, etc?
My studios are at my home. I say studios because there is not
one room alone that is adequate for my artistic practice. The large works I do
in the single garage, this is where I can make a mess without worrying. My
smaller paintings I paint in the former lounge area which I've always occupied.
This doubles as the area where I also photograph the smaller paintings,
drawings and prints, it also functions as my music and computer room. My other
interest is music which comprises recording, composing soundscapes, playing
experimental music with friends, remixing and mastering for other experimental,
avantgarde musicians and the like. It ends up being my multimedia studio.
Two years ago I rented a large studio in the Newtown area of Joburg, but it was
logistically wrong for me and seeing I had spent a great deal of money on
acquiring a home, I decided to move back to utilising what I already had. I use
the basement which is divided off for screenprinting in one section and general
workshop activities in the other
Art school or self-taught?
Both. I never took art at school as it was frowned upon. I
learned from the Walter T. Foster art books my mother bought as well as an
American artist, Alois Fabry. The Walter T. Foster books introduced me to
Hundertwasser and other abstract painters and the basics of painting although some
of it was pure kitsch. I learned a lot from observing Rembrandt, I bought a
book about him for my mother's birthday present one year, but I kept reading it
and he instantly became one of my first painting heroes and I copied his work.
I still have that book today. When I was 22 or so I received part time lessons
from Susan Pontin. She had a studio in the centre of Pietermaritzburg. I would
often see her walking up the road in her paint splattered clothes, smoking a
cigarette and exuding the bohemian artistic lifestyle as she went to buy art
materials and at that point I found her persona to be quite inspiring. She
taught me about hard work and application. Susan was inspired by classical
music and would interpret various pieces in her paintings. She drank gallons of
tea and smoked innumerable cigarettes, working like a trojan. I never liked her
own paintings though, but was inspired by her studio practice. She also taught
me techniques of figure drawing. I was working in a terribly boring job at the
time and her studio was a haven after work.
I knew quite a few other local artists and learned from them as well. This was
the early 70's and I was deeply immersed in the hippy/avant garde scene of the
time. Pietermaritzburg is a university city, so I
had contact with many creative and inspirational people.
After that it was a time at the Creative Arts Studio run by an artist called
Pam, (I have forgotten her surname), who was a graduate of the Slade School of
Art in London. She ran this small art school in the centre of town upstairs in
one of the old buildings where I met many interesting people. I was in and out
of the studio all the time. They had a small coffee bar and art material shop
attached. It was an unpleasant and vastly chaotic time of my life, but here I
discovered a deep surrealist streak in my artistic make-up.
I left Pietermaritzburg, ending up in Bloemfontein where I attended the local
Technikon and studied art for two years. I enrolled with Unisa for a Fine art
degree and finished the whole course barring one history of art module which I
have no intention of completing. I met inspirational lecturers there like Keith
Dietrich, Ivor Powell and John Clarke. I still study art and art history on a
continual basis.
Do you prefer to work with music or in silence?
It depends. When I do large abstract works I prefer
energetic music, when it comes to intricate realist smaller scale paintings,
something more meditative like Sibelius, Aarvo Part and quite often Beethoven.
The reverse is fine as well. I also enjoy painting in silence.

Favourite
brush?
A #3 rigger brush. Capable of holding enough paint to paint
the finest of long lines. I can paint the largest of my abstracts with this one
brush if necessary.
Where can we find you out side of the studio?
Going on long walks and in book shops.
If you couldn't be an artist, what would you do?
Photography, play music, do graphic design, quite a few
things as I have a wide range of interests.
Interests other than art?
Music, science, media, archaeology, military and general
history, reading, spirituality, philosophy, cycle racing, running. The list is
very extensive.
What do you collect?
I've never really collected anything in the true sense
except for objects I use in still life paintings (but those are dumped
eventually anyway), books which I constantly refer to and which I guess could
be called a collection. And any electronic music making instrument I can obtain
at a bargain price. I would say I collect anything that contributes to my
interests and activities but not simply for the sake of collecting. At present
I am minimising my existence anyway
What was the best advice given to you as an artist?
Do as much work as possible; out of quantity comes quality.
Do you think that art has the power create real social
change? If so, how do you think that process happens? Does it have that power?
Not really, unless its propaganda, then in my opinion it
ceases to be art. When you do socially conscious art you're already preaching
to the converted generally speaking. The people who should be seeing it, rarely
do. Art can create some kind of awareness and maybe, because of it possibly
being controversial, can generate media interest, and from there, public
interest. Maybe mural art like Faith 47's work for example. From my point of
view, I haven't seen any major change in society brought about by art, just an
increase in awareness at best.

What does your art process entail?
I go into the essence of my subject endeavouring to transfer
the energy and the atmosphere onto the painted or drawn surface. With my
abstract work it can be very physical and spontaneous. I use the full range of
body movement to convey the qualities of energy, the underlying forces of
nature, the perceived disorder, the patterning produced reflecting that energy
I wish to convey. I just let the idea flow through me, from brain to hand and
wait to see what happens. If I start off with any fixed idea, it usually
transforms into something different.
I start a painting with large flowing brushstrokes to
establish direction and movement and to give me something to start with. My sky
/landscape paintings are a transition between the realist still life work and
my spontaneous abstraction. I need to cycle through these phases of expression
on a regular basis as they feed into each other and prevent the onset of any
form of staleness. They are all closely related as they deal in different ways
with nature and humanities' disruption thereof. Still life paintings are very
meditational. Very still and focussed on detail. Skies are epic flourishes and
mostly maximum dramas that come from memory. For these I rarely make use of
reference material, instead they are idealised essences, sometimes nostalgic
even. Some artworks are derived from literary references such as William Blake
and others from the World Wars.

What are your inspirations?
Nature, the physics that underpin existence, decay, growth,
human disruption, the essence of things. More specifically, lately, the Large
Hadron Collider has provided a great deal of material. The Flemish masters,
Turner, Constable, Friedrich, Kiefer, Richter, Brice Marden are very definite
inspirations. After many years of artmaking I have assimilated a huge array of
artists who inspire me on various levels. I have learned not to rely on
inspiration to get artworks started, but rather extended contemplation of the
subject which translates into action. Action generates inspiration;
inspiration, action. A rewarding circle if you have the energy to maintain it.
What materials couldn’t you live without?
If it comes down to basics, Linseed oil. With that I can
make paint out of earth, minerals etc. But on a normal day to day basis, I
would really miss oil paint and canvas.
View available artworks by James de Villiers >>