{"title":"Herman James","description":"\u003cp\u003eHerman James is a New Contemporary painter who was born in Portland, Oregon. With his family, the artist spent significant time during his growing years on the coast and in the forested mountains of the Northwestern U.S.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe artist’s practice is deeply influenced by, and he retains an abiding love for, all aspects of the Northwest: ocean, fields, forests, and mountains. In service of painting the people and places he loves perhaps what is most striking about his work is his sense of color, of coloration, applied to great effect in establishing the light he achieves in his paintings.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWhile all the while keeping his regard for the Northwest alive, Herman lived and worked for many years in New York and Boston. He has shown his work extensively in the U.S. and in the E.U., especially in Germany. His work has entered significant private and public collections.\u003cbr\u003eHe now resides in Port Townsend, Washington where he continues his practice, near the Salish Sea and in sight of the Cascade and Olympic Mountain ranges.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStatement\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWorking as a painter in oil and acrylic, I set my paintings in quiet and accessible spaces of imagined landscape and in imagery of the human form, as well. Both genres, the human figurative and landscape, evince my emotions taking visual shape, expressed as light-filled, yet sometimes mysterious landscapes, and as humanity at the intersection of dream and reality.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMuch of my very recent pictorial concern has been taken up by my ideas about water as matrix for life. If there is surreality in my work, it is in the interchange between life above the waterline and below and vice versa. I like to play in the space where the one might find itself in the other.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe ocean, with its depths and pools, and the riverine, or a vernal pool found off a forest path – all these water sources, life-filled, both energetic and still, form much of my current pictorial interest. Surely, this will become apparent to anyone who chooses to take a deeper dive into my world. Perhaps, pun intended.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eStatement Continued…\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMy most recent series, that depicting single tulip blossoms cast upon water, combines the separate meanings of water and floral lore. In Victorian and Persian flower lore the tulip represents enduring love. However, a tulip blossom may stand for a wish for the restoration of a broken love bond.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOn the other hand, one meaning for water in lore has it as a place, a matrix, into which our wishes for many things can find a doorway into the eternal. During our recent Wooden Boat festival here in Port Townsend, a bell ringing ceremony was held in remembrance of those who have passed away during the previous year. At ceremonies end all in attendance tossed a blossom of remembrance of our departed loved ones from a dock into Admiralty Sound.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA good example of my premise may be seen in my mid-range sized painting of a “broken pattern” curly petaled parrot (type) tulip floating on a vernal pool titled, The Broken Heart of Farhad. The romantic story is of a sculptor named Farhad who was attached to a medieval Persian court. As these stories go, he fell in love with an unobtainable princess. She loved him back, but they were unable to consummate their love. In his grief, Farhad essentially cast his broken heart (the “broken pattern” tulip) onto water–sending his heartbreak out into a portal and matrix through which his wish might enter the universal.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMost of the tulips you see in this series are of “broken pattern” parrot tulips. This style of tulip, the parrot tulip, structurally speaking, has frilly edges to its petals. The “broken pattern” of the petals is brought about by a virus which causes what might be a solid red tulip to break into a random pattern, usually separating out a secondary color such as yellow or white. These “broken pattern” tulips were the blossom style that drove the Dutch mad during the tulip-mania of the 17th century.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eDrawing and painting are my ways of making sense of form and much else. As I spend most of my days in the studio, it is in the act of painting that I find a modicum of peace of mind and heart amidst the turbulence. I hope that my work, as it moves between the imagined and the real, and between internal motion and rest, may invite diverse audiences to connect with their own memories, emotions, and places of the heart.\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"a-blossom-carrying-a-secret-2026","title":"A Blossom Carrying a Secret (2026)","description":"","brand":"Herman James","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67622450266332,"sku":"active","price":1100.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0742\/9213\/4108\/files\/herman-james-blossom-carrying-sentiment-fine-art-consulting.jpg?v=1790956877"},{"product_id":"the-broken-heart-of-farhad-2026","title":"The Broken Heart of Farhad (2026)","description":"","brand":"Herman James","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67622493683932,"sku":"active","price":3000.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0742\/9213\/4108\/files\/herman-james-broken-heart-farhad-fine-art-consulting.jpg?v=1790956115"},{"product_id":"a-wish-cast-onto-a-vernal-pool-2026","title":"A Wish Cast onto a Vernal Pool (2026)","description":"","brand":"Herman James","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67622498435292,"sku":"active","price":2000.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0742\/9213\/4108\/files\/herman-james-wish-cast-vernal-pool-fine-art-consulting.jpg?v=1790956115"},{"product_id":"a-solid-wish-2026","title":"A Solid Wish (2026)","description":"","brand":"Herman James","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67622504399068,"sku":"active","price":1000.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0742\/9213\/4108\/files\/herman-james-solid-wish-fine-art-consulting.jpg?v=1790956115"},{"product_id":"purple-tulip-2026","title":"Purple Tulip (2026)","description":"","brand":"Herman James","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":67622511673564,"sku":"active","price":5000.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0742\/9213\/4108\/files\/Herman-James-Wish-Fine-Art-Consulting.jpg?v=1790956114"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0742\/9213\/4108\/collections\/Herman-James-Fine-Art-Consulting.jpg?v=1790957238","url":"https:\/\/www.leahdo.com\/collections\/herman-james.oembed","provider":"Leah Do","version":"1.0","type":"link"}