Climbing Suns Over Tesoro by James Drinkwater

"Climbing Suns Over Tesoro" from the TESORO MIO series
By James Drinkwater, 2022

Oil on linen
168 x 198cm

James Drinkwater is a Newcastle-based artist whose practice traverses painting, sculpture, assemblage and collage. Drinkwater makes work about place, intimacy and memory, using abstraction, colour and mark making for transmission of these preoccupations.

Drinkwater studied at the National Art School, Sydney, before moving to Melbourne and then Germany. His work is held in major public and private collections both nationally and internationally, including the Macquarie Group Collection, Artbank, Allens law firm, the Newcastle Art Gallery, and private collections in New York, Singapore, Germany and the UK. In 2014 Drinkwater won the Brett Whiteley Travelling Scholarship.

TESORO MIO

There is a warm cadence in James Drinkwater's voice as he describes his frequent sojourns to the coast with his family. Unshackled from the complexities of urban life, it is here that Drinkwater finds enormous joy, respite and inspiration from the natural environs. His love and appreciation of the land is palpable, and one cannot help but be swept up in his awe—imagining him lost in a wonderful stupor.

The Drinkwater family returns time and time again to visit a much-loved property they have affectionately dubbed “Tesoro”—a source of great inspiration to the artist. In his latest celebratory exhibition—Tesoro Mio, meaning My Treasure in Italian—the artist shares personal and familial histories; significant moments of giving to and receiving from the land. Tesoro Mio is the name lovingly given to all her grandchildren by Drinkwater’s nonna, whose impact on her family was profound. Instilling in her family an appreciation and respect for all around her, she would recount the story of having lost her late husband’s wedding ring in the garden and how, while tending to her vegetable patch some years later, it was miraculously found. Give and receive. Reap what you sow. When Drinkwater coincidentally lost his own wedding ring in the bush, he came to see it as his gift to the land. Now regaling this story to his children, Drinkwater has created his own mythology; conjuring images of his family sleepwalking in the forest under the glow of moonlight and scattering jewels on the soft forest floor, while singing ‘Tesoro, Tesoro,’⎯their gifts to the land. ‘One day’, he tells them, ‘One day, you’ll find my ring.’ There is an undeniable beauty to Drinkwater’s visual and aural storytelling and it is fantastical narratives like this that are so thoughtfully fused into the artist’s work.

At its heart, Drinkwater’s latest body of work speaks of our relationship with the land, his visual stories told from a very personal perspective. Since time immemorial, humankind has recognised that the earth nourishes us, both literally and spiritually. While we have a duty to honour the land, Drinkwater does not offer cautionary tales or preach about our obligations, rather, he simply encourages us to find joy and beauty in everything around us.

In his exhibition, Tesoro Mio, Drinkwater delves into abstraction; his swaths of colour burst with life and capture the artist’s palpable spirit. With his viscous and robust application of paint, each mark reflects a passage of time⎯a shared experience with those he holds dear. His masterfully composed series of gestures form an elegant ode to his loved ones. Laced with symbolism, motifs emerge from his canvas. Wheels from his children’s drawings roll their way into Drinkwater’s works acting as a reminder for us to slow down and appreciate all that is around us. Representations of shells collected locally by his family also feature in the artist’s works, acting as sentimental reminders of life’s simple pleasures. It is both this layered symbolism and his freedom of expression that inspires us as viewers. By offering a window into his world, Drinkwater presents painted articulations of what it means to be alive, to love and to be loved. 

This is not Drinkwater’s first foray into abstraction, having devoted his early years to it as a young painter, before later turning to figuration. Falling back into abstraction in recent years has allowed the artist the space to find pictorial solutions to life’s abstract conundrums. Inspired by iconic abstractionists such as William Scott, Joan Mitchell and Lee Krasner, Drinkwater has developed his own unmistakeable voice. Mitchell believed that to express emotion, one must have an outside reference and for Drinkwater, like Mitchell, it is nature and landscapes that furnish the external reference in his works. In this exhibition, Drinkwater has drawn from memories on the land to express the joy and beauty in everyday life. Using colour with gusto, Drinkwater is on a mission to document the splendour around us, his works exhibiting what in Mitchell’s words are ‘the qualities which differentiate a line of poetry from a line of prose.’ 

Nicole Hauser

JAMES DRINKWATER
Born 1983
Education
Fine Arts, National Art School in Darlinghurst Sydney Australia
Ron Hartree Art School, Newcastle

Australia Selected Solo exhibitions

2021 – I Love You So Much I Can’t Stop Saying Goodbye - Nicholas Thompson Gallery, Oct-Nov 2021
2021 – THE BOXER When I was young I said my prayers – Nanda\Hobbs, 9-27 February 
2020 – I Love You More Than Paintings – Nicholas Thompson Gallery, 15 Apr – 3 May 2020 2019 – Sydney Contemporary – solo with Nanda\Hobbs, 12-15 Sep 2019
2019 - The Sea Calls Me By Name, 10-year survey – Newcastle Art Gallery 1 June - 11 August 2019
2018 – Looking for Urchins and Louis Ferarri - Nanda/Hobbs 9 Oct – 3 Nov 2018
2017 - In the Halls of my Youth, The LockUp, Newcastle, December 2017- January 2018 2017 - Rungli Rungliot, Australian High Commission, Singapore, February 2017
2016 – An Entire Life, From the Interior, NKN Gallery, Melbourne, 16 August – 10 September
2016 - We are clumsy now on this Southern Beach- New works from the South of France, Nanda\Hobbs Contemporary, Sydney, 22 March – 4 April 2016
2015 - 'Every Pigeon in Paris became a Dove', New work from Paris, Peta O’Brien Contemporary Art, Hackney, London, 27th September - 15th October
2015 - In the Arms of Moreton Figs, Gallery 9, Sydney, 28th January - 14 February
2014- The Boy Cried STORM!!!, NKN Gallery, Melbourne, 5th December - 20th December 2014 - The Boy and the Ballet, Damien Minton Gallery, Sydney, 12th March - 29th March 2012 - The Ocean Parade, Damien Minton Gallery, Sydney, 23rd October - 10th November 2012 - Home Stretch, Cooks Hill Galleries, Newcastle, 10th June - 11th June
2011 - Nostalgia for Nothing, Damien Minton Gallery, Sydney, 22nd March - 16th April
2010 - Brooding Town, Iain Dawson Gallery, Sydney, 13th April - 24th April
2010 - Postage Paid Australia - Berlin, Cooks Hill Galleries, Newcastle, 19th March - 12th April
2009 - Poor Boy, Fortyfive Downstairs, Melbourne, 28th April - 2nd May
2004 - New Paintings, Maunsell Wickes, Sydney

Selected group exhibitions
2020 – MYTH, Nanda\Hobbs, July 2020
2019 – Landscape Obscura, 21 Feb – 9 Mar 2019
2018 – Summer Show, Nanda\Hobbs, December-January 2018
2018 - Kilgour Prize, Newcastle Art Gallery
2018 - Couplings – Dominik Mersch Gallery, Sydney
2018 - Sweetness of The New – The Yellow House Gallery, curated by Stepping into Tomorrow
2017 - Works on paper, Beers Gallery London, November 2017
2017 - Sydney Art Fair 2017 - Spring Art fair 1883
2017 – Into Abstraction II, Macquarie University Gallery, Sydney
2014 - Paperweight, Newcastle Art Gallery, 24th May - 10th August
2013 - Sydney Contemporary Art Fair, 19th September - 22nd September
2013 - Working Newcastle, University of Newcastle, 3rd July - 20th July
2013 - Marked, Cessnock Regional Art Gallery, 27th February - 24th March
2012 - Young Collectors - John Buckley Gallery Melbourne, 28th July - 25th August
2012 - Traces, 5 years artist residency, Leipzig Art Fair, Germany, 8th April - 31st March 
2012 - The Great Australian Landscape, Tim Olsen Gallery, 25th January - 29th January 2010 - A Perfect Day to Chase Tornados (White), Berlin, 8th October - 17th October

Collections
University of Newcastle
Art Gallery of New South Wales
Gold Coast City Art Collection
Macquarie Bank
Macquarie University
Monash University
Allens Law Firm
Newcastle Art Gallery
Warner Music Australia
Artbank
St Francis Xavier College Newcastle
Catholic Education Office NSW, Australia
Corrigan Collection
Walnut Enterprises Private collections, New York, UK, Singapore, Australia, Germany

Commissions
2016 - 2017 Walking with Giants. Monash University sculpture, Clayton campus.

Residencies
2017 - Tahiti, artist-in-residence. Asia Pacific Group
2015 - Brett Whiteley Travelling Scholarship, Cite International des Arts Paris
2015 - Yanda, Alice Springs, Hermannsburg, Palm Valley, West Macdonnell Ranges
2014 - HMRI artist in resident
2013 - Lake Macquarie City Gallery – in conjunction with Christo: John Kaldor Family collection artist rooms
2012 - Titjikala art centre NT (National art School)
2012 - Freestone print studio, Gippsland, Victoria 2012
2012 - Familia Mojo Family orphanage Nairobi, Kenya, Jan-Feb
2011 - Leipzig International Art Programme (LIA) Germany

Awards
2021 – Adelaide Perry Prize for Drawing [finalist]
2020 - The Vincent Prize [finalist]
2020 - Mosman Prize [finalist]
2020 - Paddington Art Prize [finalist]
2018 - Wynne Prize [finalist]
2018 - Kilgour Prize, Newcastle Art Gallery [finalist]
2018 - John Glover Art Prize [finalist]
2017 - Wynne Prize [finalist]
2017 - Paddington Art Prize [finalist]
2016 - Paddington Art Prize [finalist]
2016 - Sulman Prize [finalist]
2015 - Wynne Prize [finalist]
2014 - Paddington Art Prize [finalist]
2014 - Brett Whiteley Traveling Scholarship [winner]
2014 - Wynne Prize [finalist]
2014 - King School Prize [finalist]
2014 - Newcastle University Prize [finalist]
2013 - Doug Moran Portrait Prize [semi-finalist]
2013 - Brett Whiteley Traveling Scholarship [finalist, highly commended]
2012 - King School Prize [finalist]
2012 - Brett Whiteley traveling scholarship [finalist]
2011 - Dobell Drawing Prize [finalist]
2011 - Brett Whiteley Traveling Scholarship [finalist, highly commended]
2011 - Marten Bequest Traveling Scholarship [winner]
2011 - Salon Des Refuses [finalist]
2002 - John Olsen National Art School Life Drawing Prize [winner]