ARTIST JAMES KNOWLES

ART IN MEXICO (PART FOUR)

James — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 14:56:19 +0000

LIVING AND CREATING ART IN MEXICO. Actually moving in…

Although I didn’t realize it at the time, La Paloma Art Center was a major stepping-stone in my journey into the real Mexico. In those early days (1998) I needed a bridge between my work and life in Canada, and the fantasy of living and working in Mexico.

Nancy, the art center owner, convinced me that I could facilitate oil painting art classes for her guests at the center, it really was her faith in me that allowed me to cross the bridge. Now I had begun to live, work, and paint in Mexico! My studio was a rented house situated on the very beach I had walked along, and fantasized about living beside, ten years earlier.

I was now living just 100 meters from where I created this painting: “Playa Melaque”.

At this point I was only spending part of the year in Mexico, the winter. Anyone who has traveled to the West Coast of Mexico will tell you that the winters there are great, not to hot, but sunny and bright most every day, a far cry from the cold and wet Canadian winter climate!

At first I travel back and forth from Vancouver to Manzanillo, summers in Canada, winters in Mexico, by 2001 however I was ready to make the jump, and commit to living full time in the tropics! The teaching was now taking off, I was painting every day, and I had made some significant painting sales to American visitors to the area! I was becoming more familiar with my new surroundings, and my very rudimentary Spanish was improving, being a tourist and actually settling in a foreign country are two very different things however!

Any fears, doubts, and concerns that I may have had about living in Mexico didn’t stop me from loading what was left of my worldly belongings in Canada, into the back of my 1986 VW Golf, however. It was a gray Vancouver morning in October 2002 when I hit the road, bound for Mexico, a trip that would change my life for ever, and in ways I could never have imagined!

Stay tuned for more art in Mexico…

September 11 2001

James — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 12:27:01 +0000

“NINE ELEVEN”

Ten years ago today I watched the TV in horror as the “9/11” terror attack took place in America. I was living in Canada at that time, but had arrived back to the UK the previous week to celebrate my Mothers 70 birthday. I think I knew at that time that the world was never going to be quite the same again, but I didn’t realize just how much it would effect my life at a very deep and personal level. I had to remain in England for a week or so after the event, like so many others traveling at that time, as my flight was canceled. In the weeks after finally returning to Canada, I was haunted by the images I had seen on the TV, and when I returned to my studio I painted this piece. I haven’t ever shown the painting till now, but after 10 years I feel its time to take it out of storage.

ART IN MEXICO (PART THREE)

James — Mon, 04 Jul 2011 12:17:20 +0000

LIVING AND CREATING ART IN MEXICO. Discovering La Paloma Art Center…

I cant remember exactly when it was that I discovered The La Paloma Art Center in San Patricio, it would have been sometime around the year 2000, on one of my early trips to Barra de Navidad. Barra didn’t have a bank, or even a cash machine at that time, so when the pesos ran low, people would take the bus, or walk the 5 kilometer beach, round to the bank in Melaque.

On this one particular trip to the bank I took a different route, turning in off the beach earlier than usual and continuing along an unfamiliar parallel street. This is where I first saw the sign advertising “Art Classes” with an arrow pointing to a door in the wall “La Paloma Art Center”.

At first I couldn’t believe my eyes, that right there, on that dusty sandy street was an art center, and right on the beachfront! When I look back now I still find it fascinating that somehow I was led to that door.

You would have to have known this area as it was back then to appreciate just how unique La Paloma really was, like an oasis in the desert, certainly for me! I pushed the doorbell and spoke through the intercom with Nancy Lennie, I didn’t know at the time that she was in fact the owner of the center. The electric door lock buzzed and with a slight push I was through. The contrast between the dusty street outside, and the lush enclosed garden through the door, was breathtaking, I felt like I was in a real life Alice in Wonderland story!

The garden was full of exotic plants, huge hibiscus flowers the size of dinner plates arching over the paths, and basil bushes the size of trees filling the air with their aroma as I brushed passed them. For anyone this would be a heavenly experience, for me it was overwhelming, and my mind was already racing away with images, and ideas!!!

Stay tuned for more art in Mexico…

ART IN MEXICO (PART TWO)

James — Sat, 04 Jun 2011 15:43:45 +0000

LIVING AND CREATING ART IN MEXICO. Tropical beaches anyone…

Traveling down from Vancouver Canada to most places in Mexico is relatively easy, it’s a popular destination for a lot of Canadian and American holiday makers. Despite my original fascination with Mexico City, the small amount of time I spent on the Pacific West Coast of the country back in 1983 really drew me back. By the late 80’s I was starting to become a regular visitor to the region around and South of Puerta Vallarta. I still feel that there is something intoxicating about stepping off a plane into tropical heat, the smells, and sounds, and a real sense of being somewhere different. Different that is for an English Man, or as it was then, an English man from Canada.

I flew into Manzanillo, Jalisco, Mexico many times, Aeropuerto Internacional de Manzanillo as its officially known. Located about 300 kilometers South of Puerto Vallarta, this airport consists of a tiny terminal building and a thin tarmac strip which runs along side the ocean.

You know that you are entering a different world as the plane descends over the jungle, and lines up along the edge of the crashing surf, for its final approach. At times I though we were actually going to land on the sand!

Manzanillo is probably the second largest town on the Mexican West Coast, second to Acapulco, although Manzanillo has the countries biggest port. I never spent much time in Manzanillo, although I was able to get some of my painting supplies there. I usually headed North from the airport, in a taxi (at about 120 kilometers and hour!), up the coast to Barra de Navidad (Christmas sandbar).

It would be a normal bus ride of about 1 hour, however the 20 minute Formula 1 cab ride was always the best way to do it! The Village is perched precariously on a quaint little sand spit, it probably started out as a small gathering of fisher folk before the Spanish arrived in the mid 16^th Century, you can read more about its interesting history here. These days it survives from tourism, especially fishing expeditions out into the crystal clear Pacific. Back when I first visited the town in the late 80’s it catered for a mostly Mexican, Canadian, and American, hippy artisan tourists, with the occasional European hippy like me, a long way from home! With a few cheep Hotels and street front restaurants, it served as a great hub for my explorations.

Ironically the place that I would end up calling home for a while was just around the corner from Barra, well actually 4 kilometers round the crescent beach, a village called Melaque and its two other connected villages, San Patricio, and Villa Obregon. Now this is where the fun really begins…

Stay tuned for more art in Mexico…

ART IN MEXICO (PART ONE)

James — Thu, 26 May 2011 12:08:18 +0000

LIVING AND CREATING ART IN MEXICO. How it all started…

Have you ever traveled to a place, either to live, or on a short holiday, where you felt a deep connection, a feeling like finally this where you really belong?

For me this happened in 1983 in Mexico, I had moved from the UK to Vancouver Canada in 1982, and not long after arriving there I received a call from an English friend who had just started working in Mexico City. He was a draughtsman for the film industry, and had got a job working on the movie “Dune”. He told me that the Art Department was looking for more people with creative skills, and that if I flew down, I might get a job.

He was right; I ended up spending 6 months working at the Estudios Churubusco in the Churubusco neighborhood of Mexico City, what a rush that was! The work was hard and the hours long, but I did get the chance to take some trips around the country. I can remember being mesmerized by what I discovered, the food, the colors, the energy and creativity of the Mexican people. I never forgot this first encounter, and the deep feeling that somehow I belonged there in Mexico. I vowed that I would find a way to return one day to live, and create art in Mexico.

My earliest recollection of a place, a location that had a deep emotional affect on me, was my Grandparents home in Suffolk England. Looking back now it wasn’t so very different from many other places, something made it very special for me at that early age however. It was something that I didn’t feel at my home, there seemed to be more time to explore and play, it was heavenly. Perhaps it was real freedom that I was experiencing there in Suffolk, something that now, as a career artist, I cant live and work without. Without the freedom to experiment and evolve, and the time to apply my creativity, I really wouldn’t be able to create my paintings.

Along with all the wonderful things I experienced during my first visit to Mexico I can remember observing that freedom and time seemed to exist there in abundance. Perhaps I was reconnecting with that feeling I had at my grandparents home in my childhood. Whatever the reason, I was intoxicated by it, and by what living and creating art in Mexico could do for my creativity. It wasn’t just about the freedom and time however, but also the colors and shapes, the tropical flowers, so many different and interesting subjects for my brushes to capture…

Stay tuned for more art in Mexico…

BEYOND THE EASTER BUNNY

James — Fri, 22 Apr 2011 07:42:34 +0000

Have you noticed that Easter is getting more and more commercialized?

In the places I have travelled around the world it seems to me that the

Rabbit is taking over from the Rabbi! My intention with the painting below

“I God” is to stimulate dialogue in our modern world about this ancient story,

and perhaps bring some of the focus back to the original meaning of Easter.

What do you think?

TRAVELING, LIVING, & PAINTING IN MEXICO

James — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 16:59:36 +0000

It doesn’t take much to get me daydreaming about my time in Mexico.

The scent of a fresh lime, the warmth of the sun, Latin style music, ahh, there I go again!

Within every painting there is a story, and I will be writing a more detailed account of each
picture in my upcoming series of blogs on “my travels in Mexico”.

Please let me know if you would like to receive notification about the series.

Cafe L”art”e anyone?

James — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 16:12:44 +0000

On the lighter side, the endless creativity of us humans doesn’t stop.

And if you don’t love the art, well you still have a delicious cup of coffee!

Free print offer

Along the coffee cafe theme, this month I am giving away 5 small (A4)

size prints of my painting “Cafe Bosanova”.

Use the contact link to send me an email saying that you would like to

join me in Cafe Bosanova for an art coffee, and your name will go into

this months draw. Prizes will be sent out in the first week of May.
PS: Dont forget to leave me your contact information, and one last thing,
if you like my facebook fan page, please drop by and click on its “like” button

Thank you for visiting.
James

The eye of the beholder…

James — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 13:55:24 +0000

The novel “Molly Bawn”, 1878, by Margaret Wolfe Hungerford’s contains the famous line:

“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, I don’t know the book, but I do know the saying,

I use it all too often when describing peoples reactions to my art! It is a great line, and at

first glance it seems to encapsulate quite well, the way in which people choose what they

like, when confronted with a diverse catalogue of paintings.

I am running a contest on my website this month, here is the link if you want to participate.

Basically, you are invited to select a favorite painting from my catalogue of over 200 works.

What’s interesting so far, is that there is only one duplicate, in other words everyone seems to

like something different.

Over the years I have noticed a trend towards some pieces, or perhaps its away from some pieces,

but generally my “beholders” seem to see my work in very unique ways. Why is it then that some

paintings out there in the world, like the Mona Lisa for example, seem to attract more attention

than others.

I’m not attempting to put my work up along side Leonardo Da Vinci’s you understand, just

curious. Do we like it because we have “beheld beauty” or are we responding to other influences.

If Leonardo ran a contest on his website this month, I wonder what percentage of participants

would choose the Mona Lisa from his diverse catalogue, of other works, and why.

It would appear that the appreciation of art has more to it than just the beauty we see, colours,

trends, moods, lifestyles, and popular culture all play a part in the way we relate to art and artists.

It would be unimaginable to try to incorporate into a painting all the possible reasons why one

might think someone would like the finished work, disastrous results probably! It may however

be possible to paint into ones own notion of beauty, and take a chance that others might agree.

Leonardo Da Vinci worked on the Mona Lisa for many years, starting it in 1503 and not completing

it till 1519 just before he died. I have to imagine that he had no idea that this work would become

such an icon of beauty, but he clearly imbued it with his own eye for beauty, and with extraordinary results!

The other day I was asked two questions, “which of your paintings do you feel is the most beautiful”,

I found it very hard to choose! I finally came up with and answer “She Loves Me“, I still haven’t answered

the second question, “why did you choose it”!

She Loves Me

Global awareness good and bad

James — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 16:01:03 +0000

Is it me, or are we living in interesting times? This time its Egypt, well Cairo, descending into chaos as its young people start to confront the corrupt leadership. Driven by passion and frustration and information available on the internet, people are beginning to realizing that they can be the harbingers of change. World leaders are beginning to wake up to the fact that they can no longer be world deceivers, no longer able to hide corruption at any level, thanks to the new global information networks, and people who are committed to change. As an artist I feel compelled to recognize and support the new wave. More by accident perhaps than by design, my creative journey has kept me away from buying into any particular regime or doctrine, and I notice that as a result its perhaps easier for me to cheer for the freedom fighters than others who may be uncomfortable in the face of global change. The change is happening I am sure of that, what isn’t so clear is just what that will mean in the short term for our now global society. One thing is clear to me, the power of the people is still alive, that together we stand, if we could only figure out what it is we all stand for! I stand for love, art, and the pursuit of happiness, for the celebration of procreation, with the belief that life itself is what counts. Viva la revolucion!

Celebration of Procreation