The people sculptor James Stewart met in Costa Rica and Kenya greet guests to his Harling Point studio.
As an avid traveller for fun and while working in film and television, he has a catalogue of images of every place he’s visited. The pictures provide his first volley in sculpting – transferring two-dimensional images from a vast catalogue collected over years of globetrotting.
“You sort of have to imagine the third dimension in your mind.”
Stewart started his art career in visual effects on films such as films Harry Potter and District 9 as well as television series ReBoot among others. He moved around a lot, landing in Whistler where he started creating his own artwork, and met his partner Jen.
Both from colder climates of Ontario and Manitoba, they started looking around for a place to settle and discovered Oak Bay just ahead of the pandemic. He’d already begun sculpting at that point and the timing allowed him to build a studio.
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Inside his studio, the girl from Kenya stands – toes crossed, arms outstretched and chin up in defiance – not far from a giant chicken, small horse and a Whistler mountain that hints at the figure of a woman.
All mark progressions in the mind of the artist. He started with the characters from this travels, honed his skills sculpting the strength of animals.
“I started realizing I had some sort of emotion when I was sculpting these things,” Stewart says. “Maybe I should be speaking from within more.”
With the dive into less figurative, work he rarely reverts to those travel photos these days.
“It’s very difficult because every line means something, because there are so few of them,” he said of the abstracts.
Stewart is among the artists that open their doors to guests with the Oak Bay Artists’ Studio Tour this weekend. The spring celebration of the visual arts and creative process, offers visitors an opportunity to meet a variety of artists and craftspeople in their studios.
Often operating as “an island” he looks forward to seeing people in the space.
“I really like it when kids come in. I don’t think kids are exposed enough to art,” Stewart says. “Young people have an innate understanding of abstract and sculpture.”
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He has a handful of his own childhood sculptures at hand, commingling with his most recent works. Aside from seeing his process and his work, Stewart figures folks will be stunned at the things that can be done with a 3D printer, wax and bronze.
The free, self-guided tour is April 6 and 7 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. each day at individual studios and Monterey Recreation Centre (closes at 3 p.m. Sunday). A guide and map are available online at oakbay.ca/events or in person at Monterey Recreation Centre, 1442 Monterey Ave.
This tour includes the work of painters, printmakers, potters, photographers, sculptors, and fibre artists: Stewart, Lindy Michie, Carole Finn, Caroline Hunter, Marie-Andree Allison, Penny Hobson-Underwood, Flo-Elle Watson, MaryLou Wakefield, Donna Ion, Michelle Sirois Silver, Victor Lotto, Jennifer McIntyre, Pam Stonehouse, Arlene Davey, Joan Easton, Irene Khurana, Lynda Luburic, Terry McBride, Joanie McCorry, Avis Rasmussen, Sophia Shafonsky, Kim Van Weelden.
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