JAMES WILLEBRANT  CONTEMPORARY PAINTINGS  

The exhibition concentrates on memories I have saved from my youth, not only on the familiarity of the buildings and architecture that I remember but also with that certain sense of kitsch-comfortablilty symbolised by this style of architecture that I grew up with and never really appreciated at the time. It is only with the perspective of some years that we Baby Boomers have come to a new appreciation of these icons of our youth - the homes we grew up in, the neighbour's place, the house down the street where we played and watched our first Television, the places we visited on our holidays……  

With these works and throughout my painting life I have always been attracted to unusual and nostalgic subject matter which I love, and thus have always been aware of treading that fine line between Kitsch and Fine Art.... Some of the subject matter that I choose may border on the bland and anonymously peripheral initially, but my artistic challenge is to try and make something special out of something ordinary and create a strong emotional resonance for the viewer.