Friday, November 28, 2008

James Weaver: shedworker

James and Maggie Weaver are the owners of the artcafé on the island of Mersea and are interviewed by the smashing Juliet Doyle at her Musings from a muddy island blog. As well as providing a cracking combination of food and art in their café, James is also an artist and, as he explains, a shedworker:
"I’m now fortunate enough to have a lovely little studio at the end of our garden. It’s separate from the house, which I feel is important, as well as being warm and dry. It’s actually a ‘fancy shed' bought from the proceeds of an exhibition a few years ago, with larger windows than your average garden shed and also has electricity to it, so it’s quite cosy in the winter months and, unlike the kitchen table, allows me to work on several pieces simultaneously."
Indeed, one recurrent theme in his work is the beach hut.
"I had no idea at the outset that I’d be using beach huts as a subject for so much of my work. I was drawing and painting a lot of the boats and saltmarsh around our island at the time and the beach and beach huts (of which we have hundreds) increasingly began to fascinate me. These modest pieces of seaside architecture are so very colourful and quintessentially British, and from the waterline here seem to stretch for miles and miles."
You can see more of his beach hut paintings and sketches here and here and here.

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