Clayton James makes art in his studio based in Sydney, Australia.
His work contains themes of myth, mysticism, truth, beauty and the sublime.
He works primarily in drawing, painting, sculpture and mixed media and
draws inspiration from many other media including music, film, comedy,
interactive gaming and animation. Clayton is influenced by European
art movements of surrealism and abstract expressionism in the early 1900s.
Other influences include the Brazilian counterculture movements of 1960s
and 1970’s such as “Tropicália”, and the Japanese aesthetic of “Shizen”,
which he understands to describe being in harmony with the natural world,
spontaneity and effortless creativity.
While his art contains representational and symbolic elements, he sees
his primary focus as the improvised arrangement of physical media to express
how it feels to exist in our time and place. As we are constantly evolving
in a rapidly changing world, the artistic expression of our time can provide
insight into knowledge and understanding that can’t be explained with just
words and numbers, some of which is only realised when we look back upon
our creations with the benefit of hindsight.
