JAMES WELCH

EXHIBITIONS
• Aquarius Gallery, Cambria CA, Summer, 2005

Solo Exhibition:
• Galerie Apeiron, Caracas, Venezuela, June, 1996

Juried Open Watercolor Exhibitions:
• The Taos National Exhibition of American Watercolor, Taos, New Mexico, 1995
• Georgia Watercolor Society Annual Exhibition 1996
• Central Coast Watercolor Society Annual Exhibition, San Luis Obispo, 2000

ABOUT MY ART

The motifs I work in at present are: landscape, floral and still life. I moved to Cambria in 1999 after retiring from the diplomatic service and since then have been able to devote myself full-time to painting. I was a career diplomat from 1978 to 1998 and lived and worked in Colombia, Mexico, and Venezuela and Zambia. I speak Spanish fluently. Tropical landscapes, especially those of the Caribbean, have been a source of profound and continuing inspiration. I suppose in certain ways I regard California and its landscape —at least for artistic purposes— as still part of Old Mexico, indeed what the name "California" alludes to — a dreamland in a Spanish romance.

I began painting in Watercolor in the early 1970s when I was teaching English literature at the University of Houston. I specialized in Victorian literature and was very attracted to the work of J.M.W. Turner, and in general was interested in the relation between the visual arts and literature. My doctoral dissertation, which I did at the University of California, Berkeley, under the direction of the poet Josephine Miles, dealt with the relation between time and landscape in the poetry of Tennyson.

Art Training: I was stationed in Washington, DC from 1982 to 1993, where I studied figure drawing and Watercolor at the Smithsonian and the Alexandria Art League. I have also taken workshops with Don Andrews, Frank Webb, and Barbara Nechis.

Personal: Born Sept. 7,1943. I attended the public schools in State College, Pa., and then went to Wesleyan University in Connecticut, where I studied comparative literature. My sophomore year I went to Europe, traveled in Germany, France and Italy—the Grand Tour. I attended the Goethe Institut in Roethenberg ob der Tauber and the University of Kiel.

MEET THE ARTIST

If you decide to purchase a painting, please call me at 927-0626 if you would like to meet me so that I can provide you with more information on the work or my art in general.

Archival Quality: All the paintings are watercolors done on 140 Ib. Arches Cold Press paper. This archival acid-free 100% cotton rag paper is made in France at the Arches paper mill, founded in 1492. It is the most-used paper among professional watercolor painters because of its superb texture and handling qualities. I have attached a corner sample. I only use archival-quality paints that are rated I or II by the American Society of Testing and Materials (ASTM). A properly made watercolor such as these can be displayed as one would an oil painting in normal interior light without fear of change or degradation of the colors. Most of the frames and mats were made by the Urquijo Studio of Caracas, Venezuela. The glass of these frames has been given a treatment to resist UV radiation.