Interview met Jim Harris

Japanese garden (2015), olieverf op linnen , 100 x 75 cm

Ha Jim, welke werken van jou zijn er straks in de tentoonstelling te zien?

I will show two works: Japanese Garden (2015) and Pile of sand (2006).
I started to paint Japanese garden in the Amstel park at the beginning of the blossom. I paint on location in front of the subject in hand normally finishing in one go as it were. Only this was not the case with this one, it took two goes. When I went back to the spot with the painting a week later the blossom had gone, I continued painting responding to the new situation whilst leaving remnants of what was painted on the first sitting, so the painting has a kind of before and after feel to it I think.

Pile of sand, olieverf op linnen , 35.5 x 35.5 cm

Pile of sand is of exactly what the title says: a pile of sand. I painted it 10 years ago in Amsterdam north along the IJ whilst all the construction was going on. The in zoom has a kind of microcosm feel to it, an ambiguous scale. I had been painting and drawing water before that, this structure seemed to behave in the same way only moving more slowly. Like water as a subject matter it’s about nothing and everything at the same time.

Wat betekent schilderen en de schilderkunst voor jou?

I think the job of a painter or an artist is to deepen the mystery of our surroundings, to notice things and respond to them, in my case with paint.

Hoe ziet jouw gemiddelde atelierdag er uit?

I get up early around 6 and start work almost immediately with BBC radio 4 as my sound track. I’m working with ink at the moment painting the view from my windo, I’ll then have breakfast around 9. I’ll mostly paint outside, weather permitting. That pretty much dominates the whole day from 11.00 till as long as it takes.

Hoe vind je het dat je werk straks te zien is samen met 60 collega-schilders?

I’m very pleased to be able to take part, it’s a good line up.

Lust for Life heet de tentoonstelling – kun je je daar in vinden?

Yes, I think that it would be a good title for a song 🙂

Heb je nog mooie plannen voor de komende tijd?

My plan is always my next painting. I do however have another plan which is a joint effort with my Uncle (Gavin Weightman) to make a cookbook all about the recipes we were brought up with. He’s a writer so he’ll do that part and i’ll do the illustrations. The target audience is the rest of our family, at least to start with anyway.

Jim Harris – binnenkort te zien dus bij Lust for Life in de Westergasfabriek. We willen met de tentoonstelling laten zien hoe goed de schilderkunst er anno 2016 voorstaat: alive and kicking – dat blijkt op de dagelijkse werkvloer van veel ateliers en is te zien in de galeries.
We werken samen met het Mondriaan Fonds om de KunstKoop te promoten. Lenen voor je kunstaankoop tegen 0% rente: een prachtige stimulans voor de afname van goede kunst. Bij de werken in de tentoonstelling staan de maandbedragen die je met de KunstKoop van het Mondriaanfonds kunt afbetalen.

Lust For Life, Painting Today | 21 – 24 april

Locatie: Westergasfabriek, Machinegebouw, Pazzanistraat 8, Amsterdam

Openingstijden: Donderdag 21, vrijdag 22, zaterdag 23 en zondag 24 april 2016 geopend van 11.00 tot 19.00 uur, entree 5 euro.

De tentoonstelling wordt mogelijk gemaakt door het Mondriaan Fonds, Westergasfabriek, JurLights, IJM Colour, Budweiser Budvar en alle galeries en kunstenaars.