James Holland, 20th Century Artist

Pembury

Although Holland lived in Pembury, Kent, for around thirty years, there are relatively few works of the village.  He designed some posters and postcards for the Pembury Society showing the village green, the parish church, the oast houses at Downingbury Farm.  He also painted a sign for Bo Peep Corner which survived until a major storm blew it down (I have the remains of the painting in my utility room) and for various reasons, a different sign was chosen to replace his.  While Holland contributed to Pembury Society and village events, permission was refused for a memorial plaque in the parish church after his death.

This sketch shows the junction of Romford Road (descending to the right) and Woodside Road - the field between the roads was a source of contention between developers and the newly created Pembury Society, which (lead by Holland's wife Jackie) vigorously opposed its development for a large housing estate, and won the day.

 

Holland was fascinated by industry in all its forms, and Downingbury Fruit Farm has a magnificent set of oast houses from the days when it was a major hop producer.  He gained permission several times to paint there, either on his own or with his art class.  This sketch is an example of the work he did there.

 

English Cathedrals

Following on from the oil painting of Lichfield Cathedral, and looking through sketch books from the 1980s, I came across one of the start points for the oil painting of Lichfield.  The angle is slightly different, so you get more of the Cathedral itself, but the colour palette is similar - Lichfield Cathedral is built of an extraordinary red sandstone - so the colour is authentic.

 

There are also a couple of paintings of Salisbury Cathedral knocking around - Sal Shuel has one in her collection I believe.  I am not at all sure why Holland stopped in Salisbury and chose to draw, and then paint the Cathedral, but the pen and monochrome watercolour sketch below gives a very good idea of the height and dominance of the edifice. 

 

Fox-Amphoux: a village in the Var

Holiday photos are tricky things - unless you were there or really, really interested, they are something that you comment on and forget.  Holland didn't take holiday photos - he took a sketch book with him and drew his surroundings, often creating more considered works in oil or in watercolour on his return home.

For me, these sketches can be rather like holiday snaps, but then that is how I was brought up.  There are images of places we went together or are well known, where the sketches take me back to places that we loved.  Inevitably there are also holidays that I did not go on, places that I never visited, which are perfectly picturesque, but do not grab me in the same way.

Fox-Amphoux is one of those places.  I have never been there.  My parents went together once, and Holland went with his art class, as part of his recuperation from bowel cancer.  The following selection of sketches are charming, but mean little to me.  Severall were used as the basis for further works, and reactions from those who know the village and the area would be particularly welcome.

 

 

 

 

A London scene

Holland lived in London off and on throughout his life.  There are notes about his time as a student in London, as a young advertising executive, the Festival of Britain, and until the mid-60s, when he moved to Kent full time.  John Mortimer recounts swapping a farmhouse in Essex for Holland's house in Swiss Cottage (there are also rumours that John never finishing paying the outstanding monies owed from this swap).

Despite this, there are few paintings of London.  There is one of Piccadilly in a private collection (I hope to obtain a photo of it for this site), and another of the view to Primrose Hill from a flat he rented with his wife Jackie (to follow).  This tiny dark painting says it all about a wet night in London however.

 

London Street Scene, undated - likely to be 1950s, framed, available for purchase.

Lichfield Cathedral

An aunt of mine bought a flat in Lichfield in about 1980 - I helped her to move in.  It was a nice flat in a modern mews block, but not a building that was interesting in itself.  It did however have a rather fabulous view over gardens and rooftops to Lichfield Cathedral - far enough away to not be disturbed by bells, but close enough to make an interesting feature.

This oil painting done by Holland in the early 1980s shows this view from the window of the sitting room of the apartment.  Here Holland goes back to the colour palette he used so much in the 1960s to describe the murk (either real or spiritual) he associated with Birmingham and the Black Country.  This is rather unfair on Lichfield which is a charming and rather middle class Cathedral City.

 
View to Lichfield Cathedral, c1985, oil on board, unframed, available for purchase.