James Weaver - Painting & Drawing

About James

James was born on Mersea Island and can trace at least 200 years of his ancestors there. He studied Graphic Design at Colchester School of Art from 1979 to 1983. After many years working as a freelance graphic designer in print & publishing his interest in painting and drawing was re-kindled when he and his family moved back to Essex from Cornwall. He then started full-time as an artist, initially painting in watercolour and more recently in pastel and Oil. He now lives on Mersea Island working from a studio in the garden. James was a founder member of Island Artists in 2015 and currently chairs the group. James owns and runs the Oyster Gallery & Artcafé in West Mersea with his wife Maggie and their daughter Jenny. Here he regularly exhibits his work, his paintings are in many collections both here in the UK and abroad. In 2005 his work was included in the Anglia T.V. series ‘Coastal Inspirations’ about artists living and working around the coast of East Anglia. In 2020 when the Earl & Countess of Wessex visited Mersea Island James was one of the artists chosen to meet them, show and discuss his work. When COVID19 arrived in 2020 James started a sketchbook and journal with the aim of making a sketch a day accompanied with some notes as some kind of personal record of the passing days as the pandemic unfolded. This ambitious project evolved into a successful book entitled ‘100 Days - A Lockdown Sketchbook & Journal’ “I try to portray in my work the deep feeling I have for the landscape around this very unique part of the coast. I regard drawing & painting, mark making as central to everything I do and within my realist approach to the subject the aim is to develop my own visual language in response.”

Landscapes

Portraits