James Cyril Gardiner – seeing the world as A, B or C…
James Cyril Gardiner – seeing the world as A, B or C…
Current Exhibition: Bictures of my London heroes, Noes Lobby, County Hall Marriott Hotel
Ian Dury • Poly Styrene • David Bowie • Jah Wobble • Vivienne Westwood •. Roland Gift • Sade • Siouxsie Sioux • Pele
London artist James Cyril Gardiner has had to (at least temporarily) abandon his Copic Marker cityscapes and adopt an unconventional new approach to drawing- one which utilises Bic blue ballpoint pens. Worsening arthritis in the hand as an indirect result of the physical trauma of a near-death car crash in 2001 has meant the pain felt when rendering with markers was becoming intolerable. The slow, light strokes used by hyper realistic pen artists suggested a way forward and the restriction of using only a Bic pen meant invention and innovation would be needed to create something special… Various application techniques, usually involving the most gentle of touches, arbritary swirls, angular strokes but sometimes extending to an almost ‘percussive’ pointillism results in drawings he calls ‘Bictures’- not attempts at Photorealism, not Abstractions, but maybe somewhere in between. This project focuses on classic images of those key figures in the London creative scene, mainly from the late 20th century- London heroes, captured in iconic photographs and then transmogrified , over a period of 30-60 hours each, into ‘Bictures’…
(Then ‘click to view ‘Bictures of my London Heroes’ link to the photos section I will send through later)
Current Exhibition: County Hall Marriott Hotel Executive Club Lounge
These 4 Marker pen and fineliner drawings are my ‘Queen’s Queue Captures’ project, completed in early 2023.
Once the proposed route, structure and subsequent spectacle of the queue to visit the lying–in–state of the late Queen Elizabeth the Second was announced, I was immediately interested in capturing this scenario. Not just many thousands of people standing in a queue to go somewhere, but more so their shared experience of a place and time.
This, from the very beginnings, just below Lambeth Bridge, to a later beginning, past Southwark. In common with my previous works around the world and, more recently, captures of London scenes during lockdown and beyond, I often find it fascinating to try to suggest a place playing host to multiple layers of ‘visitors’, all experiencing the same place, but all having a slightly different experience. And, in turn, being part of the place themselves in fleeting moments which can never be recreated.
Subsequently the place would entertain more usual, everyday visitors, after the queue had gone. And, as a result, had another, different identity. This identity created by those there, experiencing the place but maybe, like me, thinking of those who had been there before. Maybe.
I therefore visited 4 sites, where I could capture this once-in-a-lifetime experience and resultant contrast. I managed to get many, many images of the queue in these locations, then went back over the following week to photograph the subsequent activity there at similar times.
In all 4 drawings the queue are represented by the black outlines, whereas the figures drawn in white or coloured outlines show what I saw during my ensuing visits…
ABOUT JAMES GARDINER:
Despite an incredibly tough and troubled upbringing – or maybe because of it – James Cyril Gardiner excelled at art during his school years, passing O and A-levels with ease. He explains: “I didn’t really think about drawing. I just did it, because I could.”
James declined a place at Chelsea School of Art to look after his autistic brother instead and before he knew it, 16 years of office and warehouse work had passed by. But in 2001, a life-threatening car accident left James in a coma for two weeks with a traumatic brain injury. It was during the following years of physiotherapy and rehabilitation following his near-death experience that his life-affirming passion for art was rekindled.
“Now, all I think about is drawing, because I can,” he muses.
James’ months in hospital and subsequent stages of recovery have led to a yearning for travel and a fascination with urban spaces occupied by people – past, present and future.
He feels he now sees the world through his favoured media and creative techniques- as in A, B or C… Abstract Elemental Ventures, Blue Ballpen Bictures or Copic Colour Captures.
Abstract pieces utilise concentrated watercolour paint and acrylic paint pens, often using unconventional application techniques in order to introduce an element of randomness and chance into the painting.
Blue Ballpen pieces explore differing rendering processes, challenging when working only with a Bic blue pen. These works are labour intensive but require the gentlest of touches, often taking over 30 hours to produce.
Copic colour captures are primarily James’ signature captures of city life which feature the outlines of people, describing that space as something individual and peculiar only to that person. And yet, that figure is sometimes lost in layers of other similar occupants. Maybe from a minute before – maybe from more than a century previously, spirits conjured from the mists of time.
James’ works are offered for sale only as original, one-off pieces. He says: “I create a piece and as soon as it is finished, I am only interested in the next piece – this one is done. If someone else can then enjoy owning it, then that’s fantastic – I like the idea of the paper I worked on, and the marks I made, then existing in another’s world…”
Should you wish to own any of the pieces displayed on this site, or indeed some of his other, earlier work, please visit
https://www.tricera.net/artist/mixed-media-artists/8106563
He looks forward to continuing to capture the essence of the world’s major cities, and the residents therein, whilst displaying his works in twice-yearly exhibitions around the globe, whilst offering the originals for sale via the links in this website.
Despite an incredibly tough and troubled upbringing – or maybe because of it – James Cyril Gardiner excelled at art during his school years, passing O and A-levels with ease. He explains: “I didn’t really think about drawing. I just did it, because I could.”
Should you wish to own any of the pieces displayed on this site, or indeed some of his other, earlier work, please visit
COMMISSIONS:
James is happy to undertake Commissions, be they Abstract Painterly Ventures of your idea, Blue Bictures of your heroes or Copic Colour Captures of your city. In the first instance, and to receive an approximate initial quotation, please contact here
Current Exhibition: Bictures of my London heroes, Noes Lobby, County Hall Marriott Hotel
Ian Dury
Poly Styrene
David Bowie
Jah Wobble
Vivienne Westwood
Roland Gift
Sade
Siouxsie Sioux
Pele
London artist James Cyril Gardiner has had to (at least temporarily) abandon his Copic Marker cityscapes and adopt an unconventional new approach to drawing- one which utilises Bic blue ballpoint pens. Worsening arthritis in the hand as an indirect result of the physical trauma of a near-death car crash in 2001 has meant the pain felt when rendering with markers was becoming intolerable. The slow, light strokes used by hyper realistic pen artists suggested a way forward and the restriction of using only a Bic pen meant invention and innovation would be needed to create something special… Various application techniques, usually involving the most gentle of touches, arbritary swirls, angular strokes but sometimes extending to an almost ‘percussive’ pointillism results in drawings he calls ‘Bictures’- not attempts at Photorealism, not Abstractions, but maybe somewhere in between. This project focuses on classic images of those key figures in the London creative scene, mainly from the late 20th century- London heroes, captured in iconic photographs and then transmogrified , over a period of 30-60 hours each, into ‘Bictures’…
(Then ‘click to view ‘Bictures of my London Heroes’ link to the photos section I will send through later)
Poly Styrene
David Bowie
Jah Wobble
Vivienne Westwood
Roland Gift
Sade
Siouxsie Sioux
Pele
Current Exhibition: County Hall Marriott Hotel Executive Club Lounge
These 4 Marker pen and fineliner drawings are my ‘Queen’s Queue Captures’ project, completed in early 2023.
Once the proposed route, structure and subsequent spectacle of the queue to visit the lying–in–state of the late Queen Elizabeth the Second was announced, I was immediately interested in capturing this scenario. Not just many thousands of people standing in a queue to go somewhere, but more so their shared experience of a place and time.
This, from the very beginnings, just below Lambeth Bridge, to a later beginning, past Southwark. In common with my previous works around the world and, more recently, captures of London scenes during lockdown and beyond, I often find it fascinating to try to suggest a place playing host to multiple layers of ‘visitors’, all experiencing the same place, but all having a slightly different experience. And, in turn, being part of the place themselves in fleeting moments which can never be recreated.
Subsequently the place would entertain more usual, everyday visitors, after the queue had gone. And, as a result, had another, different identity. This identity created by those there, experiencing the place but maybe, like me, thinking of those who had been there before. Maybe.
I therefore visited 4 sites, where I could capture this once-in-a-lifetime experience and resultant contrast. I managed to get many, many images of the queue in these locations, then went back over the following week to photograph the subsequent activity there at similar times.
In all 4 drawings the queue are represented by the black outlines, whereas the figures drawn in white or coloured outlines show what I saw during my ensuing visits…
ABOUT JAMES GARDINER:
Despite an incredibly tough and troubled upbringing – or maybe because of it – James Cyril Gardiner excelled at art during his school years, passing O and A-levels with ease. He explains: “I didn’t really think about drawing. I just did it, because I could.”
James declined a place at Chelsea School of Art to look after his autistic brother instead and before he knew it, 16 years of office and warehouse work had passed by. But in 2001, a life-threatening car accident left James in a coma for two weeks with a traumatic brain injury. It was during the following years of physiotherapy and rehabilitation following his near-death experience that his life-affirming passion for art was rekindled.
“Now, all I think about is drawing, because I can,” he muses.
James’ months in hospital and subsequent stages of recovery have led to a yearning for travel and a fascination with urban spaces occupied by people – past, present and future.
He feels he now sees the world through his favoured media and creative techniques- as in A, B or C… Abstract Elemental Ventures, Blue Ballpen Bictures or Copic Colour Captures.
Abstract pieces utilise concentrated watercolour paint and acrylic paint pens, often using unconventional application techniques in order to introduce an element of randomness and chance into the painting.
Blue Ballpen pieces explore differing rendering processes, challenging when working only with a Bic blue pen. These works are labour intensive but require the gentlest of touches, often taking over 30 hours to produce.
Copic colour captures are primarily James’ signature captures of city life which feature the outlines of people, describing that space as something individual and peculiar only to that person. And yet, that figure is sometimes lost in layers of other similar occupants. Maybe from a minute before – maybe from more than a century previously, spirits conjured from the mists of time.
James’ works are offered for sale only as original, one-off pieces. He says: “I create a piece and as soon as it is finished, I am only interested in the next piece – this one is done. If someone else can then enjoy owning it, then that’s fantastic – I like the idea of the paper I worked on, and the marks I made, then existing in another’s world…”
Should you wish to own any of the pieces displayed on this site, or indeed some of his other, earlier work, please visit
https://www.tricera.net/artist/mixed-media-artists/8106563
He looks forward to continuing to capture the essence of the world’s major cities, and the residents therein, whilst displaying his works in twice-yearly exhibitions around the globe, whilst offering the originals for sale via the links in this website.
Should you wish to own any of the pieces displayed on this site, or indeed some of his other, earlier work, please visit
COMMISSIONS:
James is happy to undertake Commissions, be they Abstract Painterly Ventures of your idea, Blue Bictures of your heroes or Copic Colour Captures of your city. In the first instance, and to receive an approximate initial quotation, please contact here
James Cyril Gardiner – seeing the world as A, B or C…
Current Exhibition: Bictures of my London heroes, Noes Lobby, County Hall Marriott Hotel
Ian Dury
Poly Styrene
David Bowie
Jah Wobble
Vivienne Westwood
Roland Gift
Sade
Siouxsie Sioux
Pele
London artist James Cyril Gardiner has had to (at least temporarily) abandon his Copic Marker cityscapes and adopt an unconventional new approach to drawing- one which utilises Bic blue ballpoint pens. Worsening arthritis in the hand as an indirect result of the physical trauma of a near-death car crash in 2001 has meant the pain felt when rendering with markers was becoming intolerable. The slow, light strokes used by hyper realistic pen artists suggested a way forward and the restriction of using only a Bic pen meant invention and innovation would be needed to create something special… Various application techniques, usually involving the most gentle of touches, arbritary swirls, angular strokes but sometimes extending to an almost ‘percussive’ pointillism results in drawings he calls ‘Bictures’- not attempts at Photorealism, not Abstractions, but maybe somewhere in between. This project focuses on classic images of those key figures in the London creative scene, mainly from the late 20th century- London heroes, captured in iconic photographs and then transmogrified , over a period of 30-60 hours each, into ‘Bictures’…
(Then ‘click to view ‘Bictures of my London Heroes’ link to the photos section I will send through later)
Poly Styrene
David Bowie
Jah Wobble
Vivienne Westwood
Roland Gift
Sade
Siouxsie Sioux
Pele
Current Exhibition:
Current Exhibition: County Hall Marriott Hotel Executive Club Lounge
Current Exhibition: County Hall Marriott Hotel Executive Club Lounge
These 4 Marker pen and fineliner drawings are my ‘Queen’s Queue Captures’ project, completed in early 2023.
Once the proposed route, structure and subsequent spectacle of the queue to visit the lying–in–state of the late Queen Elizabeth the Second was announced, I was immediately interested in capturing this scenario. Not just many thousands of people standing in a queue to go somewhere, but more so their shared experience of a place and time.
This, from the very beginnings, just below Lambeth Bridge, to a later beginning, past Southwark. In common with my previous works around the world and, more recently, captures of London scenes during lockdown and beyond, I often find it fascinating to try to suggest a place playing host to multiple layers of ‘visitors’, all experiencing the same place, but all having a slightly different experience. And, in turn, being part of the place themselves in fleeting moments which can never be recreated.
Subsequently the place would entertain more usual, everyday visitors, after the queue had gone. And, as a result, had another, different identity. This identity created by those there, experiencing the place but maybe, like me, thinking of those who had been there before. Maybe.
I therefore visited 4 sites, where I could capture this once-in-a-lifetime experience and resultant contrast. I managed to get many, many images of the queue in these locations, then went back over the following week to photograph the subsequent activity there at similar times.
In all 4 drawings the queue are represented by the black outlines, whereas the figures drawn in white or coloured outlines show what I saw during my ensuing visits…
ABOUT JAMES GARDINER:
Despite an incredibly tough and troubled upbringing – or maybe because of it – James Cyril Gardiner excelled at art during his school years, passing O and A-levels with ease. He explains: “I didn’t really think about drawing. I just did it, because I could.”
James declined a place at Chelsea School of Art to look after his autistic brother instead and before he knew it, 16 years of office and warehouse work had passed by. But in 2001, a life-threatening car accident left James in a coma for two weeks with a traumatic brain injury. It was during the following years of physiotherapy and rehabilitation following his near-death experience that his life-affirming passion for art was rekindled.
“Now, all I think about is drawing, because I can,” he muses.
James’ months in hospital and subsequent stages of recovery have led to a yearning for travel and a fascination with urban spaces occupied by people – past, present and future.
He feels he now sees the world through his favoured media and creative techniques- as in A, B or C… Abstract Elemental Ventures, Blue Ballpen Bictures or Copic Colour Captures.
Abstract pieces utilise concentrated watercolour paint and acrylic paint pens, often using unconventional application techniques in order to introduce an element of randomness and chance into the painting.
Blue Ballpen pieces explore differing rendering processes, challenging when working only with a Bic blue pen. These works are labour intensive but require the gentlest of touches, often taking over 30 hours to produce.
Copic colour captures are primarily James’ signature captures of city life which feature the outlines of people, describing that space as something individual and peculiar only to that person. And yet, that figure is sometimes lost in layers of other similar occupants. Maybe from a minute before – maybe from more than a century previously, spirits conjured from the mists of time.
James’ works are offered for sale only as original, one-off pieces. He says: “I create a piece and as soon as it is finished, I am only interested in the next piece – this one is done. If someone else can then enjoy owning it, then that’s fantastic – I like the idea of the paper I worked on, and the marks I made, then existing in another’s world…”
Should you wish to own any of the pieces displayed on this site, or indeed some of his other, earlier work, please visit
https://www.tricera.net/artist/mixed-media-artists/8106563
He looks forward to continuing to capture the essence of the world’s major cities, and the residents therein, whilst displaying his works in twice-yearly exhibitions around the globe, whilst offering the originals for sale via the links in this website.
Should you wish to own any of the pieces displayed on this site, or indeed some of his other, earlier work, please visit