James Maconochie

"James Maconochie was born in London in 1965 and grew up in Bermuda. His first public exhibition was put on at Eton College with two fellow art students to represent the Art Department for a visit by HRH the Duke of Edinburgh in 1980. After leaving school he travelled to Australia and worked for various commercial galleries in Melbourne and Sydney, and was asked to exhibit paintings in both cities that were inspired by his visits to The Great Barrier Reef. On returning to England six months later, he studied Renaissance and 20th Century Art in Oxford, where he wrote a thesis comparing the background land and seascape scenes of Old Master paintings with contemporary works. This was titled The Same Sky. In 1986, while based in London, he was awarded a grant by the London Arts Council and held his first one-man show at The Orangery, in Holland Park. This generated significant interest and the majority of the exhibited pieces were bought by a private collector in Geneva. In the last ten years there have been numerous exhibitions in London and abroad, with work based mainly on his semi-abstract visions of Bermuda, the Caribbean, the West Indies and, closer to home, the Western Isles of Scotland. While he has maintained a loyalty to the colour blue, he claims that he has by no means reached the end of the infinite variations of its interpretations. “James Maconochie has achieved a fast rising reputation and is collected by private and corporate enthusiasts internationally. His work evokes extraordinary atmospheric effects through images of large scale seascapes with deep dramatic colours. The ocean especially as a subject matter suggests power, mystery and tranquillity.” – Art Review 1999"