Monday, June 30, 2014

Paintings By James Christensen

By Darren Hartley


James Christensen paintings are inspired by the world's myths, fables and tales of imagination. They add up to more than beautiful, sometimes curious looking, works of art. They look at the world as a classroom. This stems from the fact that James taught art professionally for over 20 years.

The early James Christensen paintings displayed fantasy images that James thought other people will like. To his amazement, he discovered that people liked his imaginative, magical worlds as much as he did. After completing his studies, James worked as a freelance illustrator, continually working on his own painting on his free time.

The universal predicaments of the fantastic characters in James Christensen paintings touched a chord in the lives of other people and bring a wry smile of recognition from them. People found themselves relating to one of James' overdressed, self important little characters in his Poofy Guy in a Short Leash painting.

In the fantastic world of James Christensen paintings, False Magic is an inclusion. In this painting, fishes are portrayed as symbols of magic and wisdom. Their floating appearance in the air reminds people that everything is a possibility. Anything or anybody touched or surrounded by the fishes are considered truly blessed.

James Christensen paintings can be about mythical adventures. One such painting, St. Brendian Naviga describes a 10th century romance about Brendan and a company of monks sailing the Atlantic Ocean towards the Promised Land. St. Brendan has been associated with whales and large fishes. His fame rests in his adventurous stories as described in Brendan's Voyage.

One of the James Christensen paintings comes with a free booklet explaining all of 72 superstitions. Entitled Superstitions, it divulges that life is a precarious business, so much so that ancient forebears became keen to stack the cosmic deck. What hurt can wishing upon a falling star, bewaring of the black cat or picking up a lucky penny bring?




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