Artists and Artwork

Rocks and Trees II (Gulf Islands) - New!
James Mah
Mixed media on paper
22 x 30 in.
Value: $695.00
Rental per month: $14.00

James Mah was born in China in 1949. When he was four, he started drawing aeroplanes and found he liked it. When he was six, his family immigrated to Saskatchewan, where he did not learn to play hockey. This, and the excellent prairie light, probably boosted his art career. He was very fortunate to have had teachers who encouraged him. He entered the University of Saskatchewan and took some painting classes with Donald MacNamee. In 1969 he took a year of courses in drawing and design at the Alberta College of Art. He received an architectural degree from U.B.C. in 1975 and an architectural licence some years later. He worked in the Vancouver Planning Department, in commercial Interior Design and in Architectural offices.  Because his drawings looked better than his buildings, he left the profession in 1989 to return to the easel.

He considers his work the markings of an artistic life, which he defines as the workings of a subconscious imagination.  He usually begins his work with some notation from the ‘real world’, not so much to establish an objective but as a starting point.  A very few of these ersatz works are kept, but the great majority are put aside, sometimes for weeks, to be worked over.  The paper or canvas already bearing an image is used as the basis for the second attempt.  This new painting usually has no relation to the existing image.  As the pigment goes on in haphazard fashion, an image eventually appears and is recognized.  This imago is analyzed and rendered.  Then it is evaluated and if it pleases him, the work is kept, but more often than not, it is again put aside for re-working, or destruction which is the easiest part of his work.