The majority of James’ compositions are painted panels hung flat in sets of four by five, ten by eight; six by three. They consist of sets of interacting characters which can be read from left to right, top to bottom, corner to corner.
The characters, arrived at through a more expressionist style of abstraction and gestural mark making, spring from Dada and Surrealist ‘Automatic Writing’ ideas.
“It is abstraction but it is not abstract.The final definition of a handful of basic shapes has not led to minimalism. Instead the forms have evolved as characters, as characters explicit, almost referential. Their differing colours grounds alter their connotation through context at times one clearly reads the arc as hill not rainbow, the thistle as formalised flying bird, the circle as occluded moon, and the musical stave is re-iterated again and again as tree.” Andrew Grieg, 1986. Full text below.
JAMES CRAMB: AFTER THE RAIN
After the Rain, 1986 at the Graeme Murray Gallery.
A reflection on After The Rain by Andrew Greig, 1986.
James Cramb Artist 