James Kerr

A lifetime of looking, making and experimenting has led British artist James Kerr to a bold and increasingly abstract approach to painting, defined by expressive colour, rich texture and a determination to keep moving forward.

Kerr’s work has evolved from traditional Impressionism towards an increasingly minimal and abstract approach in which colour, structure and mark-making take precedence over literal representation. Still lifes and landscapes provide a starting point, but as each painting develops, recognisable forms are pared back into strong geometric blocks of colour and richly worked surfaces.

Kerr is entirely self-taught, although art was part of his world from childhood. His mother painted, and he recalls the smell of linseed oil and turpentine as being “in my DNA”. That lifelong understanding of colour and composition now underpins his studio practice.

Kerr begins with simple drawings, often inspired by sketches made while travelling, before blocking in the composition with brushes and palette knives. Rather than working wet-on-wet, he allows layers to dry before building, scraping back and sometimes deliberately destroying areas of paint. Recent works introduce collage and materials including jute scrim, wood ash and plaster, adding further physicality and depth to his surfaces.

The great movements of 20th-century painting are an important touchstone for him, but Kerr is not interested in imitation, nor simply in creating a “pretty painting”. His landscapes are largely developed away from the places that inspire them and allowing memory and feeling to intervene before he returns to the studio, and he describes his art as “an emotional response to a subject, not just a literal record of it.”

Kerr has exhibited extensively in the UK in London and across the UK, and his work appears in private collections in the UK and internationally.