Running Through the Slip Room James Drinkwater James Drinkwater - Running Through the Slip Room
Running Through the Slip Room 2023
Running Through the Slip RoomJames DrinkwaterRunning Through the Slip Room
Running Through the Slip Room2023
oil on canvas
51 x 51 cm
$8,850  ENQUIRE
Cycling to the Sea James Drinkwater James Drinkwater - Cycling to the Sea
Cycling to the Sea 2023
Cycling to the SeaJames DrinkwaterCycling to the Sea
Cycling to the Sea2023
oil on hardboard
60 x 92 cm
SOLD  ENQUIRE
I Didn't Wipe My Tears In Case I'd Miss Something James Drinkwater James Drinkwater - I Didn't Wipe My Tears In Case I'd Miss Something
I Didn't Wipe My Tears In Case I'd Miss Something 2023
I Didn't Wipe My Tears In Case I'd Miss SomethingJames DrinkwaterI Didn't Wipe My Tears In Case I'd Miss Something
I Didn't Wipe My Tears In Case I'd Miss Something2023
oil on canvas
137 x 214 cm
SOLD  ENQUIRE
When You Are Really Out At Sea James Drinkwater James Drinkwater - When You Are Really Out At Sea
When You Are Really Out At Sea 2023
When You Are Really Out At SeaJames DrinkwaterWhen You Are Really Out At Sea
When You Are Really Out At Sea2023
oil on linen
137.5 x 122.5 cm
SOLD  ENQUIRE
Hot Sand James Drinkwater James Drinkwater - Hot Sand
Hot Sand 2023
Hot SandJames DrinkwaterHot Sand
Hot Sand2023
oil on linen
38 x 38 cm
SOLD  ENQUIRE
The Sea In Her Mind While She Sleeps James Drinkwater James Drinkwater - The Sea In Her Mind While She Sleeps
The Sea In Her Mind While She Sleeps 2023
The Sea In Her Mind While She SleepsJames DrinkwaterThe Sea In Her Mind While She Sleeps
The Sea In Her Mind While She Sleeps2023
oil on canvas
137 x 198 cm
SOLD  ENQUIRE
Things We Found In the Soldier's Pool James Drinkwater James Drinkwater - Things We Found In the Soldier's Pool
Things We Found In the Soldier's Pool 2023
Things We Found In the Soldier's PoolJames DrinkwaterThings We Found In the Soldier's Pool
Things We Found In the Soldier's Pool2023
oil on canvas
137 x 198 cm
SOLD  ENQUIRE
Storm Approaching the Soldier's Pool James Drinkwater James Drinkwater - Storm Approaching the Soldier's Pool
Storm Approaching the Soldier's Pool 2023
Storm Approaching the Soldier's PoolJames DrinkwaterStorm Approaching the Soldier's Pool
Storm Approaching the Soldier's Pool2023
oil on canvas
66.5 x 71.5 cm
SOLD  ENQUIRE
Swimming on the Golden Minutes James Drinkwater James Drinkwater - Swimming on the Golden Minutes
Swimming on the Golden Minutes 2023
Swimming on the Golden MinutesJames DrinkwaterSwimming on the Golden Minutes
Swimming on the Golden Minutes2023
oil on hardboard and ornate frame
36 x 43.5 cm
Available  ENQUIRE
Through the Ocean Garden James Drinkwater James Drinkwater - Through the Ocean Garden
Through the Ocean Garden 2023
Through the Ocean GardenJames DrinkwaterThrough the Ocean Garden
Through the Ocean Garden2023
oil on canvas
137 x 198 cm
SOLD  ENQUIRE
We Are Only Starfish and Stars James Drinkwater James Drinkwater - We Are Only Starfish and Stars
We Are Only Starfish and Stars 2023
We Are Only Starfish and StarsJames DrinkwaterWe Are Only Starfish and Stars
We Are Only Starfish and Stars2023
oil on hardboard and ornate frame
45.5 x 58.5 cm
SOLD  ENQUIRE
We All Climb the Hill In the Morning James Drinkwater James Drinkwater - We All Climb the Hill In the Morning
We All Climb the Hill In the Morning 2023
We All Climb the Hill In the MorningJames DrinkwaterWe All Climb the Hill In the Morning
We All Climb the Hill In the Morning2023
oil on linen
122.5 x 137.5 cm
SOLD  ENQUIRE
On That Beach You Became An Icon James Drinkwater James Drinkwater - On That Beach You Became An Icon
On That Beach You Became An Icon 2023
On That Beach You Became An IconJames DrinkwaterOn That Beach You Became An Icon
On That Beach You Became An Icon2023
oil on panel and gold leaf
39 x 30 cm
SOLD  ENQUIRE
Aerial View of the Ocean Baths James Drinkwater James Drinkwater - Aerial View of the Ocean Baths
Aerial View of the Ocean Baths 2023
Aerial View of the Ocean BathsJames DrinkwaterAerial View of the Ocean Baths
Aerial View of the Ocean Baths2023
oil on linen
50.5 x 60.5 cm
SOLD  ENQUIRE
Bather and the Sun on the Water James Drinkwater James Drinkwater - Bather and the Sun on the Water
Bather and the Sun on the Water 2023
Bather and the Sun on the WaterJames DrinkwaterBather and the Sun on the Water
Bather and the Sun on the Water2023
oil on linen
56 x 56 cm
SOLD  ENQUIRE
You Could Just Make a Painting and Write It All In There James Drinkwater James Drinkwater - You Could Just Make a Painting and Write It All In There
You Could Just Make a Painting and Write It All In There 2023
You Could Just Make a Painting and Write It All In ThereJames DrinkwaterYou Could Just Make a Painting and Write It All In There
You Could Just Make a Painting and Write It All In There2023
oil on canvas
71 x 66 cm
SOLD  ENQUIRE
Child Playing Under a Beach Umbrella James Drinkwater James Drinkwater - Child Playing Under a Beach Umbrella
Child Playing Under a Beach Umbrella 2023
Child Playing Under a Beach UmbrellaJames DrinkwaterChild Playing Under a Beach Umbrella
Child Playing Under a Beach Umbrella2023
oil on canvas
61 x 61 cm
SOLD  ENQUIRE
They Are Starting to Sing James Drinkwater James Drinkwater - They Are Starting to Sing
They Are Starting to Sing 2023
They Are Starting to SingJames DrinkwaterThey Are Starting to Sing
They Are Starting to Sing2023
oil on canvas
122.5 x 151 cm
SOLD  ENQUIRE
The Morning Kitchen After the Sea James Drinkwater James Drinkwater - The Morning Kitchen After the Sea
The Morning Kitchen After the Sea 2023
The Morning Kitchen After the SeaJames DrinkwaterThe Morning Kitchen After the Sea
The Morning Kitchen After the Sea2023
oil on linen
122.5 x 137.5 cm
SOLD  ENQUIRE
The Slip Room James Drinkwater James Drinkwater - The Slip Room
The Slip Room 2023
The Slip RoomJames DrinkwaterThe Slip Room
The Slip Room2023
oil on linen
110.5 x 110.5 cm
SOLD  ENQUIRE
Night Swimming James Drinkwater James Drinkwater - Night Swimming
Night Swimming 2023
Night SwimmingJames DrinkwaterNight Swimming
Night Swimming2023
oil on hardboard and ornate frame
64 x 50.5 cm
SOLD  ENQUIRE
It's Only a Big Green Sea II James Drinkwater James Drinkwater - It's Only a Big Green Sea II
It's Only a Big Green Sea II 2023
It's Only a Big Green Sea IIJames DrinkwaterIt's Only a Big Green Sea II
It's Only a Big Green Sea II2023
oil on mirror and ornate frame
95 x 120 cm
SOLD  ENQUIRE
You Could Just Make a Painting and Write It All In There Study James Drinkwater James Drinkwater - You Could Just Make a Painting and Write It All In There Study
You Could Just Make a Painting and Write It All In There Study 2023
You Could Just Make a Painting and Write It All In There StudyJames DrinkwaterYou Could Just Make a Painting and Write It All In There Study
You Could Just Make a Painting and Write It All In There Study2023
oil on hardboard
30 x 30 cm
SOLD  ENQUIRE
Bolton Street James Drinkwater James Drinkwater - Bolton Street
Bolton Street 2023
Bolton StreetJames DrinkwaterBolton Street
Bolton Street2023
oil on canvas
51 x 51 cm
SOLD  ENQUIRE
INSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room' James Drinkwater James Drinkwater - INSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room'
INSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room' 2023
INSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room'James DrinkwaterINSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room'
INSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room'2023
INSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room' James Drinkwater James Drinkwater - INSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room'
INSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room' 2023
INSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room'James DrinkwaterINSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room'
INSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room'2023
INSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room' James Drinkwater James Drinkwater - INSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room'
INSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room' 2023
INSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room'James DrinkwaterINSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room'
INSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room'2023
INSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room' James Drinkwater James Drinkwater - INSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room'
INSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room' 2023
INSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room'James DrinkwaterINSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room'
INSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room'2023
INSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room' James Drinkwater James Drinkwater - INSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room'
INSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room' 2023
INSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room'James DrinkwaterINSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room'
INSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room'2023
INSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room' James Drinkwater James Drinkwater - INSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room'
INSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room' 2023
INSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room'James DrinkwaterINSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room'
INSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room'2023
INSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room' James Drinkwater James Drinkwater - INSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room'
INSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room' 2023
INSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room'James DrinkwaterINSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room'
INSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room'2023
INSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room' James Drinkwater James Drinkwater - INSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room'
INSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room' 2023
INSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room'James DrinkwaterINSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room'
INSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room'2023
INSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room' James Drinkwater James Drinkwater - INSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room'
INSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room' 2023
INSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room'James DrinkwaterINSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room'
INSTALLATION VIEW 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write it all in There — New Paintings from the Slip Room'2023
James Drinkwater 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write It All In There — New Paintings From The Slip Room'

The intimacy and theatre of family life and everyday events are at the core of James Drinkwater’s art practice. Inspiration might be found in the coastal life he shares with his partner and children in his hometown of Newcastle, or in something as obscure as the architecture of his son’s vintage Japanese cameras - Drinkwater is drawn to the beauty right in front of him, the magic under his nose.

Throughout his career which began aged five with classes at the Ron Hartree Art School, Newcastle, Drinkwater explored both abstraction and figuration before developing his distinctive aesthetic. He shifts between painting, sculpture, assemblage, collage and drawing in the studio but it is primarily painting where his ideas are most fully explored. His canvases are viscous, sensual, and physical with the oil applied in thick swathes of colour by palette knife, rags and his bare hands. His contemplations on themes and concepts drive both materiality and composition.

James Drinkwater graduated from the National Art School, Sydney (2001) before moving to Melbourne, then Italy and Germany to further his art practice. A finalist in major art prizes such as the Mosman Prize (2020), Paddington Art Prize (2020, 2017, 2016, 2014), Wynne Prize (2018, 2017, 2015, 2014), Kilgour Prize (2018), and the Sulman Prize (2016), he won the Brett Whiteley Travelling Scholarship in 2014 and the Marten Bequest Travelling Scholarship in 2011. He has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions throughout Australia, and internationally in Germany and Singapore, and his work is held in private, corporate and public collections such as the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Gold Coast City Art Collection, Newcastle Art Gallery, Monash University, Macquarie University, University of Newcastle and Artbank.

James Drinkwater

Born 1983, lives and works in Newcastle, Australia

EDUCATION

2003

  • Fine Arts, National Art School in Darlinghurst, Sydney

1992

  • Ron Hartee Art School, Newcastle

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2024

  • 'Somewhere Between The Sea and The Table', Vigo Gallery, United Kingdom
  • 'Fronte Oceano', Nanda\Hobbs, Aotearo Art Fair, New Zealand
  • 'Child at the Met and Other Journals', Nicholas Thompson Gallery, Melbourne Art Fair

2023

  • 'You Could Just Make a Painting and Write It All In There - New Paintings from the Slip Room', EDWINA CORLETTE, Brisbane
  • 'At Mid Career', Survey Exhibition, The Drill Hall Gallery, Australian National University, Canberra
  • 'Dobell's Storm, An Exhibition of Sets, Costumes and Media from the Ballet', MAC Museum, Lake Macquarie
  • 'Passage', Survey Exhibition, NCCA Northern Centre for Contemporary Art, Darwin
  • 'AMERICAN SALT - Montauk to the Bowery', Nanda\Hobbs, Sydney

2022

  • 'Tesoro Mio', Nanda/Hobbs, Sydney
  • 'The Boxer, round 2/ Old photos make me cry', Newcastle University Gallery
  • 'Sand Drawings and Other Tropes', Nicholas Thompson Gallery, Melbourne

2021

  • 'I love you so much I can't stop saying goodbye', Nicholas Thompson Gallery, Melbourne
  • 'The Boxer/When I Was Younger I Said My Prayers', Nanda/Hobbs, Sydney

2020

  • 'I love you more than paintings', Nicholas Thompson Gallery, Melbourne
  • 'A Day By the Sea, Informality', Henley on Thames, Oxfordshire, United Kingdom

2019

  • 'The Sea Calls Me by Name', 10 year survey, Newcastle Art Gallery
  • 'I love you to pieces then back together again', Nanda/Hobbs, Sydney
  • Sydney Contemporary, Nanda/Hobbs, Sydney

2018

  • 'Looking for Urchins and Louis Ferrari', Nanda/Hobbs, Sydney

2017

  • 'In the Halls of my Youth', The LockUp, Newcastle
  • 'Rungli Rungliot', Australian High Commission, Singapore

2016

  • 'An entire life, from the interior', NKN Gallery, Melbourne
  • ‘We are clumsy now on this Southern Beach, New works from the South of France’, Nanda/Hobbs, Sydney

2015

  • 'Every Pigeon in Paris Became a Dove, New work from Paris', Peta O'Brian Contemporary Art, London
  • 'In the Arms of Moreton Figs', Gallery 9, Sydney

2014

  • 'The boy cried STORM!!!', NKN Gallery, Melbourne
  • 'The boy and the ballet', Damien Minton Gallery, Sydney

2012

  • 'The Ocean Parade', Damien Minton Gallery, Sydney
  • 'Home Stretch', Cooks Hill Galleries, Newcastle

2011

  • 'Nostalgia for Nothing', Damien Minton Gallery, Sydney

2010

  • 'Brooding Town', Lain Dawson Gallery, Sydney
  • 'Postage Paid Australia, Berlin', Cooks Hill Galleries, Newcastle

2009

  • 'Poor Boy', Fortyfive Downstairs, Melbourne

2004

  • 'New Paintings', Maunsell Wickes, Sydney
  • 'Vintage', Manien Minton Gallery, Newcastle

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2024

  • ‘How To Swim’, curated by Sally Anderson, EDWINA CORLETTE, Brisbane
  • 'Mastering Disorder', Cadet Capela, Paris
  • 'New Abstractions', Cromwell Place, London
  • 'Rue Des Fleurus, Athènes', Allouche Benias, Greece
  • 'A dream about a horse', Vigo Gallery, United Kingdom

2023

  • 'Untitled', Art Fair Miami, Vigo Gallery, United Kingdom
  • 'Salon Des Refuse', S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney

2022

  • 'Singing in Unison', Curated by Phong H. Bui and Cal McKeever, Brooklyn Rail, New York

2019

  • 'Postcards from Twin Peaks with Paul Ryan and James Drinkwater', Nanda/Hobbs, Sydney

2018

  • 'Kilgour Proze', Newcastle Art Gallery
  • 'Black Diamond Money', Byron School of Arts
  • 'Couplings', Dominik Mersch Gallery, Sydney
  • 'Sweetness of the New', The Yellow House Gallery

2017

  • 'Works on Paper', Beers Gallery, London
  • Sydney Contemporary Art Fair, Nanda/Hobbs, Sydney
  • Spring Art Fair 1883, NKN Gallery
  • 'Into Abstraction II', Macquarie University Gallery

2014

  • 'Paperweight', Newcastle Art Gallery

2013

  • Sydney Contemporary Art Fair, Damien Minton Gallery
  • Working Newcastle, University of Newcastle
  • 'Marked', Cessnock Regional Art Gallery

2012

  • 'Young Collectors', John Buckley Gallery Melbourne
  • 'Traces', Leipzig Art Fair, Germany
  • 'The Great Australian Landscape, Tim Olsen Gallery

2010

  • 'A Perfect Day to Chase Tornados (White)', Berlin

AWARDS AND PRIZES

2020

  • Finalist, The Vincent Prize, Marrickville, New South Wales
  • Finalist, Mosman Prize, New South Wales
  • Finalist, Paddington Art Prize, Sydney

2018

  • Finalist, Kilgour Art Prize, Newcastle
  • Finalist, John Glover Art Prize, Tasmania
  • Finalist, Wynne Art Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

2017

  • Finalist, John Glover Art Prize, Tasmania
  • Finalist, Wynne Art Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
  • Finalist, Paddington Art Prize, Sydney

2016

  • Finalist, Paddington Art Prize, Sydney
  • Finalist, Sulman Art Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

2015

  • Finalist, Wynne Art Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

2014

  • Finalist, Paddington Art Prize, Sydney
  • Winner, Brett Whiteley Travelling Scholarship, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
  • Finalist, Wynne Art Prize, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
  • Finalist, King School Prize, Sydney
  • Finalist, Newcastle University Prize, Newcastle

2013

  • Semi-Finalist, Doug Moran Portrait Prize, Sydney
  • Highly Commended, Brett Whiteley Travelling Scholarship, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

2012

  • Finalist, King School Prize, Sydney
  • Finalist, Brett Whiteley Travelling Scholarship, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney

2011

  • Finalist, Dobell Drawing Prize, National Art School, Sydney
  • Highly Commended, Brett Whiteley Travelling Scholarship, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney
  • Winner, Marten Bequest Travelling Scholarship
  • Finalist, Salon Des Refuses, S.H. Ervin Gallery, Sydney

2002

  • Winner, John Olsen National Art School Life Drawing Prize, Sydney

Collections

  • Artbank
  • University of Newcastle
  • Art Gallery of New South Wales
  • Gold Coast City Art Collection
  • Macquarie University
  • Monash University
  • Newcastle Art Gallery
  • Warner Music Australia
  • St Francis Xavier College, Newcastle
  • Bendigo Art Gallery
  • Maitland Regional Art Gallery
  • Macquarie Bank
  • Schnabel Collection, New York
  • Home Of The Arts, Gold Coast
  • Allens Law Firm
  • Private collections, New York, UK, Singapore, Australia, Germany

July 23, 2024

JAMES DRINKWATER FEATURES IN ISSUE 2 OF ART-CLE FOR 2024

James Drinkwater has featured in ART-CLE Issue 02, 2024:

"Known for his raucous yet meticulously composed paintings, James Drinkwater is one of Australia’s most celebrated contemporary artists. Yet, the words ‘contemporary’ and ‘artist’ are not necessarily ones Drinkwater would use to describe himself. He prefers the term ‘painter’, and he is a gestural one at that, drawing on influences from the vast legacy of Australian, British, American and French modern art he became obsessed with as a child growing up in Newcastle, New South Wales. Drinkwater says he started drawing and painting incessantly from the age of five, after becoming taken with the small landscape paintings his aunt would work on at her kitchen table.

"Drinkwater’s talent was recognised and nurtured early on, not just by his parents and those around him but also by the art world itself. During our conversation, he fields a call from his dad, who wants to come around and see his recent paintings. “It’s never ideal, the time he wants to come,” Drinkwater says after hanging up. “But I’m never going to say no to that, it’s fuel. You talk about fathers not approving of their kids doing art… artists like Clarice Beckett, you know. My dad was there in the garage with me, standing with a ciggy and a chardonnay just going, ‘Oh, bloody brilliant James. Brilliant. Michelle, come look!’

"Between the ages of eight and eighteen, he attended Ron Hartree’s now-closed art school in Newcastle and visited exhibitions whenever his parents could take him. He later attended the National Art School in Sydney—only for one year, before getting restless—and then moved to Melbourne, where he met his now-wife, the painter and performance artist Lottie Consalvo. The pair soon moved to Berlin, where they lived for three years before relocating back to Newcastle in search of cheaper studio space and a quieter life.

"In 2014, aged thirty, he won the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship, which took his family— then-newly expanded to three with the arrival of his first child, Vincenzo—to the Cité des Arts in Paris for three months and a further three travelling. Fast forward to June 2023, almost a decade on, and a survey exhibition at Canberra’s Drill Hall Gallery—James Drinkwater: at mid-career, curated by Terence Maloon—announced without hesitation Drinkwater’s arrival at that often tenuous artistic milestone.

"Drinkwater’s paintings are defined by their expressive use of colour. They are rich in matter, working texture and colour into abstract yet familiar figures, landscapes and interiors that speak of his experiences both real and imagined. In subject, his work draws heavily on the intimacy of his family life, the oceanic environment in which he lives, the broader Australian landscape and the people and places with which he interacts in his movements and travels. As was the case for the 20th century painters Drinkwater has so admired, his own exploration of this personal iconography at once allows insight into his subjective experience and offers something of our shared world to dive into."

- Emma Pegrum, ART-CLE


Image: James Drinkwater, courtesy Nic Gossage

READ MORE HERE

June 21, 2023

JAMES DRINKWATER: AT MID-CAREER SURVEY AT DRILL HALL GALLERY

"Early recognised as an exceptional talent, James Drinkwater has never toned-down the intensity and bravura of his approach to painting. His work has mined a vast legacy of modern art – Australian, British, American, French – as if all of it remains relevant, fresh and available to him. Now, on the brink of turning 40, this is the first survey of his prodigious past. While his paintings evoke figures, landscapes and interiors, they are also meticulously composed abstractions, distinctive for their complex and opulent fusion of texture, colour and spatial intrigue. This exhibition will be accompanied by a major publication. AT MID-CAREER: James Drinkwater is curated by Terence Maloon."

- Drill Hall Gallery


The exhibition is open 23 June, 2023.

Image: James Drinkwater, We are clumsy now on this southern beach, 2016, mixed media on board, 140 x 120 cm. Private collection.

READ MORE HERE

May 4, 2022

JAMES DRINKWATER FEATURED IN HOUSE AND GARDEN MAGAZINE

"Lottie Consalvo and James Drinkwater have created a big-hearted, art-filled home in their terrace house by the sea.

"James’ art practice incorporates painting, sculpture, drawings and wearable textiles. "Since I was a child, making art was the clearest way I could express myself,” he says. His creativity is nourished by “generosity of any kind, whether it be the human spirit or nature itself"."

- Elizabeth Wilson, House & Garden Magazine


Image: James Drinkwater, courtesy Alana Landsberry

READ MORE HERE

June 3, 2021

James Drinkwater FEATURED IN VAULT ART MAGAZINE - ISSUE 34

Written by Louise Martin-Chew

JAMES DRINKWATER - TALKING WITH PAINTERS

3 – 18 December 2024
‘SMALL WORKS’ featuring Ari Athans, John Bokor, James Drinkwater, Bridie Gillman, Dan Kyle, Rhys Lee, Belem Lett, Tara Marynowsky, Tim McMonagle, Peta Minnici, Sally M Nangala Mulda, Natalie O'Loughlin, Bundit Puangthong, Paul Ryan, Vipoo Srivilasa

3 – 24 September 2024
THE SPRING SHOW

19 December 2023 – 30 January 2024
THE SUMMER SHOW

7 – 21 December 2023
SMALL WORKS - Click and Collection

29 November 2022 – 28 February 2023
THE SUMMER SHOW

25 August 2022 – 4 September 2022
James Drinkwater ‘A N D I A M O’