James Walsh Retrospective

We are delighted to present the work of our friend and Artist James Walsh – a Retrospective Show to celebrate his long career – with work dating back to 1957. Works include paintings and framed drawings, with some personal work which shows his influences and gradual progression into the distinctive style he has now.

Jim, who has lived in Southport most of his life, has exhibited with other Merseyside artists as far afield as Mons in Belgium, and throughout the North West of England as a member of the Sefton Guild of Artists – an association which brought his work to the attention of Peter Stott and the Red Barn, where he first exhibited with guild members in 2008. In 2009, his work was the subject of the gallery’s first solo exhibition – almost two decades after his first one-man show in Southport in 1990.

Prior to the current retrospective – his first – Jim’s greatest collaboration with Peter has been painting the mural in the private chapel in which Peter and his wife Jo were married. The mural, which was completed over three summers in 2014-16, features many of the components of Jim’s mature style, in turns irreverent and enigmatic, bold in composition and colour, and not afraid to challenge the viewer with its own mixture of styles.

Martin Walsh, Cambridge, July 2018

“I have never understood what compels me to paint; it is something I have always done.

I’m always reluctant to make any statements about my art. It’s mainly figurative and drawn from my imagination, observations and memories including dreams, and recollections of childhood. For me a painting is a statement and an expression in itself, and I’m happy for others to reach their own understanding of my work.” – James Walsh Artist Statement