Now that’s a wordy title, but there is a story which links everything. It’s now about four years since I first met James. I was fascinated to learn about his art restoration business. Repairing, renewing, breathing new life into historical works of art. James dropped out of a digital media course at ManMet (some time ago it has to be said, not recent history). His uncle commissioned him to paint reproductions of classical works for his restaurants and from there James was offered a job in apprenticeship at Grove Fine Art, then and still the leading authority on LS Lowry. 

 

In that first meeting with James he explained to me the techniques vital to art conservation and restoration: “There are no manuals,” James told me. “Often I will have to ‘weld’ a new canvas onto the back of a painting. A process which involves hot wax and a suction table. But from there on in it’s just instinct in knowing how to clean surfaces, match pigments and judge how, in time, newly applied paint will age. From experience I know that to get a certain blue there might be a cerulean blue, ultramarine, a bit of crimson and I might put a little raw umber in as well. But then you’ve got to factor in age, because once the oil paint has aged over a hundred years, the light changes the colour as well.” 

 

I keep writing the word ‘lockdown’ and each time I do, hope that it will be for the last time. But then so much changed direction at, or after, that difficult period. James told me when we chatted recently that he was just keeping afloat, had lost his ‘drive.’ Such a familiar story. As lockdown eased there was an open event at AWOL in Ancoats, where James has his studio. A guy called in, started chatting and said that he was organising a petition to save the gasometers that were iconic landmarks visible from the windows at AWOL, in Hope Mill. James had a painting of a gasometer dating back to 2006 and on seeing this the gasometer crusader asked him to paint more on the subject. “It awoke my interest in painting again. As a child in the 80s I would scour the record shops in the Northern Quarter. Exploring the back streets and alleys, looking at the explosion of graffiti. The architecture and diversity of the buildings fascinated me.”

 

And so James began to paint the subject of his early fascination. The exhibition at Saan1 on Kelvin Street NQ ran for just three days and so you have missed (for the time being) the opportunity to see these fresh and light filled paintings. There may be another exhibition, but meanwhile James would be happy to show you the works and chat through how his knowledge of restoring oil paintings has added to his technique in creation and not just restoration. 

 

But there’s another part to this post lockdown (that word again…) Bloomfield renaissance. Early last year a client asked James to film the restoration of a painting, just to see how the process was carried out. James did so and, almost as an afterthought, posted the film on Instagram. Jude Wainwright (who I wrote about recently and is a neighbour of James in her own studio at AWOL), popped her head round the door and suggested that James look at his Insta account. The film had attracted over a million views and his followers on Insta grew from 2,000 to 50,000 almost instantly. James then set up his own YouTube channel to show restoration films and that channel has, in the past year, attracted over 12 million views. 

 

And so I can write no more, other than just recommend that you have a look at the fascinating films, all available through James’s website, and contact him for a close look at his new works. Restoring, now creating. 

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