Karl James is a self taught artist working from Whyalla in regional South Australia. His work covers many media from heavy and brooding charcoal drawings to mono prints, etchings, luscious tactile collages and vibrant paintings in oil and acrylic.Karl’s oeuvre is wide and ranges from expressionist still life and landscapes to mixed media collages often incorporating the written word, portraits, brooding charcoal drawings and narrative illustration. His influences are obvious in the finished works but are responses to the challenge of other art. Behind the façade though, one can glimpse traces of a search for new truths.Karl’s passion for art making oozes from these works. They become outpourings of ideas, arteries, feeding his love of discovery and a new language for emotional and intellectual activity. Inherent in all the work is the search for a sense of the artists place and what art making is all about, a sense of the very soul of things. The making of art is mysterious and more often than not out of the hands of the artist. It seems to originate from somewhere else; the place of poetry and passion, the artist, like a mere servant, at its beck and call. Karl’s works are part of an ongoing cat and mouse, a chasing, stalking and pawing at the very idea of Soul.For Karl art must have soul, poetry and mystery. Let the viewer think what he will. Art is not absolute and it shouldn’t be. One should not try to destroy the mystery of life as science does but rejoice in it. This is the place of the artist.For Karl the making of art is like trying to catch a most beautiful butterfly that is always just out of reach.
Karl James is a multi award winning artist and his work has been exhibited widely throughout South Australia.
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