CUTTING EDGE
NEW WORK BY
JAMES HAWKINS
Tuesday 12th June – Saturday 16th June
The Gallery 28 Cork Street London W1S 3NG
www.rhueart.co.uk 01854 612460 info@rhueart.co.uk
Press night and private view Tuesday 12 June, 5.30 – 8.30 p.m.
With his new cut-outs, Hawkins breaks the ‘tyranny of the rectangle’
‘One of the best contemporary landscape painters in Scotland’
Liathach from Coire Mhic Nobuil acrylic on carbon fibre 82 x 69 cm
CUTTING EDGE
WHEN I began cutting out paintings I had a notion to draw attention to the painted mark; to celebrate its interwoven
complexity, its taut energy and its innate beauty. I aspired to do this without considering so much what the mark
represented but really just to see it for itself. I knew I was embarking on an exciting journey but I couldn’t see beyond
the next bend in the road.
I now understand that the cut edge defines both the mark and what it represents; cutting into an abstract mark
enables me to use it to describe the profile of a mountain, stream, rock etc. The resulting cut-out painting fragment is
similar to the way we look at things, we focus in on what we wish to see and temporarily blur out what surrounds it.
It wasn’t long before I laid the offcuts on a piece and thought of collaging the separate shapes together, the
process then
becomes one of both adding and taking away. This method of building a painting echoes the ‘no loss’
procedures I so enjoy when editing video on a computer - the ability to temporarily change part of an image and then
revert to the original if necessary is very different from the linear process of painting that is always changing in one
direction with little possibility of return.
Spate Water, Torridon acrylic on carbon fibre 161 x 97 cm
The first pieces were done on paper, float-mounted on foam board and framed behind glass to protect the
delicate edges;
ironically, I was breaking the tyranny of the rectangle and then restating it. After a lot of research I
settled on carbon fibre and core board as a substrate robust enough to be cut out and presented unframed; the pieces
are thirty millimetres thick and the paint continues around the edge as with the box canvases, the three dimensional
illusion is very strong and leads the eye to question the flatness of the image surface. I’ve always aimed to make my
paintings ‘dance’ or shimmer by using pockets of complementary colour and vigorous gestural marks, so discovering
that these cut-out pieces confound the space and depth of a painting was a bonus.
I take the dogs up Rhue Hill every day and I’ve walked the same route for so long now that I’ve worn a path!
Recently, a visitor to my studio told me Henry Thoreau wrote that if one wanted to observe change in Nature one
should repeat the same journey daily; it’s true, that way you notice the subtle changes through the seasons. These recent
paintings result from the ongoing development of process that evolves and is filtered through constant reference to my
environment.
JAMES HAWKINS 2012
Snow on Cul Mor and Cul Beag acrylic on carbon fibre 85 x 52 cm
RhueArt represents contemporary artists based in the UK and Ireland, whose work encompasses painting, film-making,
photography, textiles and sculpture.
Opened in May 2012 by Andrew Dixon (CEO Creative Scotland), RhueArt Gallery shows, year round, work by the
artists we represent alongside site-specific installations. Current exhibition (until mid-June): Mary Bourne (sculptures in
stone, slate and marble), Lucy Woodley (silversmith, wall-mounted jewellery), Helen Denerley (animal and bird
sculptures in scrap metal) and Lisa O’Brien (ink drawings).
James Hawkins continues to work and exhibit at his open studio.
RhueArt Gallery & James Hawkins’s Rhue Studio are open throughout the year Monday – Saturday 10 a.m. – 5 p.m.
For further information, images or to interview James Hawkins please contact
Flick Hawkins (director),
flick@rhueart.co.uk +44(0)1854 612460
Rona Johnson
rona.j.johnson@btinternet.com +44(0)1854 666383 or 07879 440798 (mobile)
RhueArt Ltd, Rhue, Ullapool, Scotland IV26 2TJ