_{Disclaimer: What I consider to be aesthetically pleasing or excellent in nature does not necessarily reflect the opinions held by dA or its members in general. This article is written out of my own perspective, and is one I want to share with others who might enjoy similar types of artwork.}

I can't remember how I first saw James Green's work, but when I did I was particularly struck by one picture, called Ship of the Fens [link] This depicted a lovely view across to, and including Ely Cathedral in Cambridgeshire UK.

The reason this so struck me was not only found within the painting itself; it so happens that my father was Organist and Music Director of this very cathedral back in the 1950's for 6 years! I remember proudly sitting next to my Daddy as he commanded everything from the organ loft, producing the most heavenly of sounds, both chorally from the choir and instrumentally from his own organ playing. I now have that picture in my possession, and love it!

Here is is story and interview...

Interview with ~jamesgreen

How long have you been doing art and who or what got you started?

In my last year at school back in 1991 I was unsure what I was going to do for a living until one day we had a visit from an Art college showing us some samples of artwork that their students had produced. I was totally blown away by all of the work they were showing us, particularly by the Illustration work on show that day, and that was when I realized art was what I wanted to do for a living. However due to the fact of my poor GCSE results which I received with a "C" in art being my best result, it was going to be hard to get into this Art college. Despite this, I still went to an interview at this art college in the hope to get onto a technical Illustration course, but my GSCEs results let me down; nevertheless, the college did see some potential in my portfolio that day and took a chance with me by offering me a one year Art Foundation Course instead.

From that day I didn't look back and went on to enjoy 5 great years at Isle of Ely Art College and gained a 1st diploma in Art and design, ND in Technical Illustration and a HND in Illustration. Along the way I received two Student of the Year awards which I'm very proud of.

I went self employed as a full time professional artist as soon as I had finished my studies.

Do you have any other family members who are artists?

No other family members are artists although my late Grandad was a keen artist in his spare time.

Do you feel that any particular artists have influenced your work?

I was heavily influenced at College by everyone around me and after leaving college I was particularly in awe of a lot of airbrush F1 artists.

For a few years after that I kept myself to myself as an Artist and locked myself away not really taking much influence from anyone to try and make my work my own. However, this last two or three years I have been influenced a lot by artists such as Peter Hodson, Leon Olin and some of Simon Deweys works.

What sort of things inspire your artwork?

The Fens where I live are one of my main inspirations it's very flat but has some amazing big skies; it's fairly untouched from an artists point of view compared to other parts of the country.

Do you have a preference for the type of pictures you like to create?

I feel most comfortable painting man made objects. However because I do this for a living I paint now what I know I can sell easily and what my collectors say they want. I produce limited edition prints from most of my paintings, so need to sell a few hundred of each painting to make my living. In that respect preferences go out the window!

Could you give a brief overview of the techniques you use, including an outline of which software is used for preparing a traditional work for upload onto the internet?

Techniques I use to create a painting is to use acrylic inks, watercolour and gouche all mixed in together mainly on illustration board with a good pure stable No2 paint brush. I sometimes find watercolour pencils useful too and I also run the above paints and inks through an airbrush mainly for shadows and for blending in areas (this gives a nice smooth affect).

I usually have my paintings professionally scanned in on a large A0 flat bed scanner ready for the production of my Limited edition prints, I'm then given a copy to go on the net from that. If I don't use the scan then I use me Sony Cyber shot digital camera to take a shot of my painting in day light but in a fairly shaded area, I then upload the images onto my Mac iBook and just crop it in iPhoto (cant go wrong with a Mac!). Before I found my printer with the A0 flat bed scanner, a photo (even professionally taken) of large traditional artwork just didn't cut the mustard for reproduction of hard copies. However photos are more than fine for use on the net.

Could you pick out 3 of your most favourite images from your gallery and explain why you particularly like them?

Shire horses - The reason this is one of my favourites is the fact that horses have a reputation of being very hard to paint. So I was well chuffed with this, particularly as this was my first attempt at painting horses.

Ancient dawn,Flag fen- A simple Fenland early morning scene which, when I set out to do, I wanted to embrace a good sense of atmosphere; I feel I achieved this. I also recently won a Daily Deviation for this piece

Stamford Meadows- I wanted to make sure that I painted every building spot-on in full detail, I therefore spent a long time making sure I nailed every building on this piece. Because I spent so much time on this painting it has to be a favourite of mine.

Do you have any advice for aspiring artists?

The best advice I have for any aspiring artists is to make sure before you start painting is to nail the drawing side of things first. You could do the most wonderful painting in the world executed perfectly but if your original drawing is not believable to the eye then it just won't work- I've seen it plenty times before.

Do you have any future plans for diversifying your artwork?

Im trying to produce more universal paintings at the moment which still have a Fenland interest but which could attract a wider appeal; my style I hope will progress naturally over the next few years.

Here is a small selection from ~jamesgreen's Art Gallery

<sub>I have carried out a series of interviews and biographies here, all of which are available as links from my journals - please click on to see the full list.

Here is a stamp which I would be very pleased for anyone who has been interviewed by me to use in their journal or shoutboard...



Thank you</sub>