'My Castle My Rules'

Artist

James McQueen

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Inspired by the likes of famous street artist: Banksy, McQueen is an elusive artist, linking the fiction of his literary-themed subject matter with his fabricated name. Living between New York & London where he has also been working as an actor for over 30 years. He is certainly an artist to keep a watchful eye on, as his visibility and art value seems to be growing by the month! An artist to absolutely consider adding to your collection.

McQueen takes a humorous view of the popular artists in the current market. He has combined the iconic symbols of artists such as Banksy with popular imagery from Harland Miller’s satirical paintings of reimagined Penguin books. McQueen has created a collection of high quality and original pieces on canvas.

James McQueen talks fondly of his influences from his grandfather, who had a huge collection of Penguin books, which he was fascinated by as a child. McQueen's grandfather would often read them to him but James was more interested in their aesthetic.

His stylistic influences are apparent throughout his work: particularly the work of Harland Miller . He also draws on influences from Mark Rothko's colour field painting, which applies to large areas of flat single colour. This shows in the faded layers of paint in McQueen's work. Creating art to escape into, like you wood a good book.

James McQueen started his own Penguin book collection as an adult and decided he wanted to own a life size canvas version. Having no desire to buy one, he decided to create his own. McQueen painted one to begin with, then a neighbour expressed an interest and friends soon began asking too. 

Planning and painting the books soon became the artist's passion and McQueen drew visual inspiration from his personal collection of 300 Penguin books. Gleaning great pleasure from re-working the old classic Penguin covers.  The care and attention that goes into each piece is obvious to the eye immediately. Each finished piece is painted to reflect the age of the books. McQueen uses many weeks of oil-painted layers, which are then sanded down to create an amazing patina, and finished with lacquer. This technique of working gives the artwork a truly authentic vintage feel.

Dimensions