Biography

James  Hellard was born in Canada and has lived in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Ontario. He has always been interested in the creative arts and is continually learning the elements of fine art, music, photography, and video.

James has mostly used pencil drawing as an artistic medium as well as oil paint, acrylics, and  more recently computer graphics as a medium for inspiration, design, and finished creations.

His commissions have been largely comprised of scenes that the buyer has a sentimental attachment to, with elements of several different times and places, combined in one painting like a collage but one coherent scene.

Working mainly from photographs and sketches, James works with graphic software to establish a desirable composition, then paints an underdrawing, like an illustration, then paints the colour.

In the future he will continue to use and combine traditional as well as non-traditional tools to explore new possibilities.

James is a self-taught artist whose career has spanned over three decades. He paints mostly Canadian landscapes or portraits with landscapes in the background.

His art education consists of life drawing , Chinese calligraphy, and painting courses taken in college while pursuing a career in electronics. He also has studied art history and is influenced by most realist masters from renaissance to present, such as as Da Vinci, Rembrandt, Maxfield Parrish, and Thomas Cole, as well as a few lesser known contemporary favorites.

“Inspiration and imagination play a major role in my work,” states the artist. “Without inspiration there would be no reason to paint, and the imagination takes over as the painting develops a life of its own during its execution.”

The artist’s paintings are not limited to any one subject. Most begin with a customers idea or a photograph which the artist takes on as many occasions as possible.

Credentials and Associations

Member of the

Society of York Region Artists 

East Gwillumbury group of Artists

Mount Albert Group of Artists