-
James Castle
First Light
-
James Castle RSA is a Scottish sculptor living and working in Wiltshire. Born in Aberdeen in 1946, Castle studied at Ealing School of Art, Winchester School of Art and the Royal College of Art, London. As well as exhibiting his own work widely, Castle has curated exhibitions of sculpture, most notably at Gloucester Cathedral and Malmesbury Abbey. He was also Senior Lecturer in Sculpture and Fine Art at the University of Gloucestershire. In 2005 Castle was elected an Associate Member of the Royal British Society of Sculptors and in 2008 he was elected a Royal Scottish Academician. Castle’s work is featured in public collections including Aberdeen Art Gallery; Strathclyde University, Glasgow; Highland Council, Inverness; and the Royal Scottish Academy.
-
-
James Castle RSAStudy for First LightMixed media on paper29 x 21 cm
61 x 51 cm framed£ 650.00 -
James Castle RSAStudy for DaybreakMixed media on paper32 x 20 cm
61 x 51 cm framed£ 700.00 -
James Castle RSACharcoal TreeMixed media on paper32 x 20 cm
61 x 51 cm framed£ 600.00 -
James Castle RSAPink DawnMixed media32 x 20 cm
49 x 41 cm framed£ 600.00
-
-
-
James Castle RSALiftMixed media on paper33 x 28 cm
61 x 51 framed£ 700.00 -
James Castle RSAResting CloudMixed media on paper32 x 20 cm
61 x 51 cm framedSold -
James Castle RSASistersMixed media on paper32 x 20 cm
61 x 51 cm framedSold -
James Castle RSASleepMixed media on paper32 x 20 cm
61 x 51 cm framed£ 700.00
-
-
-
James Castle RSAPitch BlackMixed media on paper33 x 28 cm
61 x 51 cm framed£ 700.00 -
James Castle RSAStudy for A Peep at DawnMixed media on paper35 x 28 cm
61 x 51 framed£ 700.00 -
James Castle RSAWind at WestacottMixed media on paper33 x 28 cm
61 x 51 cm framedSold -
James Castle RSATouchingMixed media on paper34 x 28 cm
49 x 41 cm framed£ 700.00
-
-
-
James Castle RSAStudy for Beneath the HillMixed media on paper29 x 21 cm
61 x 51 cm framed£ 650.00 -
James Castle RSASide by SideMixed media on paper32 x 20 cm
61 x 51 cm framedSold -
James Castle RSAGliderMixed media on paper33 x 28 cm
61 x 51 cm framed£ 650.00 -
James Castle RSAChrysalisMixed media on paper32 x 20 cm
61 x 51 cm framed£ 600.00
-
-
Artist's Statement
The work in this exhibition has a theme running through it, which has been common to most of my work for years, where the conscious and subconscious worlds intermingle; where the imagination and memories of actual events or places cross over, and where any of these elements have the potential to become ingredients that come together to make a sculpture.
The times of day when these elements seem to be at their most vivid is at daybreak and at dusk, often when we are coming out of sleep or going into it. We can experience strong feelings such as alarm, relief or pleasure as we awake and our minds adjust to conscious reality. Dreams, good and bad can exemplify this state of mind. This explains to some degree the surreal nature of the work, where the lines between the real and the unreal disappear into sculptures that always have a degree of chance embodied in them, as in a game of chess or draughts, and where formal and structural concerns are central to the organisation of the forms. There is usually a narrative, but that narrative could be as seemingly elusive as a piece of music by Eric Satie. -
The starting points of all the images are personal, whether observed, dreamt, imagined or experienced, for example the destruction by fire of a much-loved place from my youth, the Torryburn Hotel in Aberdeenshire. Interestingly and purely by chance, as I have worked through this body of work topical issues such as the importance of trees in the landscape in this climatically changing world have emerged: the toppling of trees, the burning of trees, the negative effects of emissions in the form of reoccurring images of smoke and cloud on the landscape. This is an example of how the imagery in work that is drawn from the personal can evoke a much broader, shared experience of the world we live in: a collective subconscious. This is only one aspect of one or two of the works in the exhibition, and as we know applying words and meaning to visual art can be problematic.
The drawings in the exhibition express the ideas and potential for the sculpture and are worked through in the same way that sculpture is, with chance and accident playing a major role.