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James Wilkinson Artist
James Wilkinson (Born 1965-)Is an artist, primarily a painter and an author.
He is the Artist in Residence at Hylands House in Chelmsford Essex. He is also the Official Artist to the V Festival. He created the art-form Paintpop, A derivative of Pop-Art Portraiture where the subject of the painting contributes to the canvas in some way to create a portrait of themselves.
As a child he was inspired by the Pop-Artist Peter Blake, Blake and Wilkinson’s mothers were good friends and used to attend Bingo sessions together. When Wilkinson was a ten years old Blake gifted him a signed copy of his "Owl and the Pussycat' with a signed 12" single from Blake's friend Ian Dury inscribed by Dury "To thee and thine cheerily to you"
He began working life as a Commercial Artist in the early 1980s working for Brunnings Advertising Agency in Whitechapel and then various art studios across London. During this period he began the paintpop idea after viewing Henry VIII’s portrait by Holbein at Hever Castle in Kent. Wilkinson said that knowing that the King sat just feet from the canvas when paint was laid on it was incredibly inspiring, he felt that it could have contained even more of the person if Henry had just stepped forward and left a thumb-print in the paint. The portrait led him to get his own subjects to put a part of themselves into his portraits. He began by getting performers such as Adam Ant and Paul Weller to contribute to portraits that he had painted of them, continuing this theme whilst studying Life-Art for a decade he exhibited over 80 portraits in London’s Leicester Square in 1999 where every painting from David Bowie to the Spice Girls contained contributions from the subjects.
In 2002 Ronnie Wood let James use his private members club in Kensington to host an exhibition of portraits. The exhibition was attended by Ronnie and Jo Wood and a number of other celebrities and musicians.
His work is owned by many of his subjects including Liam and Noel Gallagher, Gem Archer of Oasis, Natalie Appleton of All Saints, The Prodigy, James Morrison, Sid Owen, Louise Redknapp and many other celebrities.
His work has featured in leading publications including the Sun Newspaper, USA Today and Hello Magazine and on the BBC.
In June 2009 He was invited to Exhibit an exhibition on the life of Major Dick Winters the subject of Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks' epic series Band of Brothers, in Normandy France, as part of the 65th anniversary commemoration of D-day. He has since created the portraits of a further five Band of Brothers heroes.
In December 2009 He was appointed Artist in Residence at Hylands House in Chelmsford Essex.
In 2011 His first book The Ghosts of Chislehurst Caves was published
In 2012 He was appointed as the Inaugural Official Artist to the V Festival, the first time in 16 years of the Festival He appeared on stage painting James Morrison, Noel Gallagher, Olly Murs and Tom Jones. The first ever Exhibition for the V Festival will be held in 2013 and is set to contain around 30 images.
James supports the Helen Rollason Cancer Charity and hosts an annual exhibition in Chelmsford for the Charity. External Links
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/bizarre/284431/Now-rocker-is-Liam-gull-agher.html http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/essex/hi/people_and_places/arts_and_culture/newsid_9385000/9385443.stm http://rosemarie-peaty.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/james-wilkinson.html http://www.thisistotalessex.co.uk/Portraits-Hell/story-13806861-detail/story.html
http://www.efinancialnews.com/story/2011-11-08/life-after-the-city-james-wilkinson
http://www.braintreeandwithamtimes.co.uk/news/9787848.Witham__Priti_as_a_picture/
http:/www.paintpop.com