Birds Eye View, 2024

I have long been fascinated by beautiful objects and their ability to stir our emotions. Whether it’s an heirloom, something found or something natural, objects have their own personalities and relationships with each other, their settings and the people perceiving them. Inspired by Nora Heysen and Henri Fantin-Latour, and drawing on the still-life genre’s lineage dating back to Roman times, I like to think of objects as playing parts on a stage; the composition creates a visual dialogue which I capture and preserve. My paintings reflect the way I work: quiet, meticulous and meditative. With the aid of photographs, I produce a grisaille, a monochromatic underpainting, before glazing it with multiple layers of colour. Each layer has a function and must be resolved before moving onto the next, then the final veil of varnish creates one cohesive image. By contemporary standards, my paintings are quite small. This is a deliberate choice: I create images of objects within the interiors I have staged; ultimately, my images become objects in an interior created by someone else.

James McFarlane uses centuries-old techniques to create contemporary still-life works that embody a feeling of timelessness.

The elegance and serenity of his works are quickly apparent; longer contemplation hints at the depth of his technical expertise, meticulous planning and disciplined practice.

Calm, lustrous paintings of beautiful objects pleasingly arrayed are borne of countless hours and days of labour. Each work can take months to complete, as McFarlane applies layer after layer of delicate oil paint wash, waiting for each to dry before proceeding.

Inspired by Dutch and Flemish old masters, it’s a repetitive and meditative process McFarlane has been refining since his early days as an artist.

Born in 1985, he acquired his first studio space in 2014 and trained with artist Tony Smibert in 2015.

His 2022 debut show Act One: A Brush with James, under the direction of Sonya Hender, was a near-sell-out. Twenty-three works were displayed alongside the artefacts captured within them: gleaming objects of porcelain, glass and copper against Persian rugs, antique furniture and cut flowers, creating an immersive sensory experience.

McFarlane’s love of still life arises from a fundamental aesthetic sensibility. His background encompasses hotel management and work in Adelaide’s private sector, where he was surrounded by traditional and contemporary fine art in well-appointed interiors. He and his partner have renovated and decorated a number of historic and significant properties.

What’s not immediately obvious from McFarlane’s signature still-life works is his commitment to continuous learning and experimentation as part of his overall practice. His watercolours, for example, evoke the energy of Japanese brushwork, and are dramatically different from the more considered oils that have been showcased in his most recent exhibitions.

The common thread through McFarlane’s works is not just his desire to experiment with technique, but also the desire to consistently practise and ultimately perfect his technique.

McFarlane is based in the Clare Valley, South Australia.