James McCarthy

James McCarthy studied in NCAD during the 1970s. During this period the art classes were quite liberal encouraging students to develop their own approach and style through exploration and self-tuition. All of the students attending during this period were working a lot of the time alone. There were set courses and McCarthy attended drawing classes, but soon after he went on to the sculpture. As he says there are inherent links between drawing and sculpture due to space and line. It was at NCAD that he was taught the basics principles of sculpture, where during the period he worked solely in plaster. His work during this time varied in size from busts to half size figures. An interest in ceramics and pottery led him to the Kilkenny Design workshop where his work looked to traditional Irish influences. He remained in Kilkenny for a year, after which he returned to Dublin where he set up a studio working primarily in ceramics. He returned to sculpture led by an inherent desire and attraction for creating three-dimensional visual form. He also was financially able to begin casting which is an expensive process and labour intensive, through mould making, and cast cleaning. He states though that one can vary the process through the use of different materials, and he claims “its all down to technique” . No one particular sculptor comes to mind who has influenced him yet he admires the work of Arturo Martini, an Italian whose sculptures were unconventional and untraditional. His work appealed to McCarthy precisely for these qualities. McCarthy also appreciates the work of Picasso’s simplistic forms and the suggestion of a metaphorical subject matter as something more worldly. McCarthy’s abilities as a sculptor were recognised and as early as 1985 he was exhibiting solo exhibitions at the Cork Arts Society and in-group exhibitions in 1997. His work features in many private collections in Ireland in RTE and the Arts Council, England, Germany and the USA.

As a figurative painter his work was well acknowledged through an attempt to integrate old and new values, skills and ideas especially in his painting ‘Farewell to Beara’ with “its black birds flying above the heads of hatted figures on horseback” . Such qualities he has transcribed to his figurative sculpture. His work emerges from an intuitive non-analytical approach. Often his unconscious doodling leads to slightly more formalised, yet essentially, free, drawings, which then get structure into sculptural forms . Much of his work is attractive, familiar and at times outgoing, full of humour and wit. It appears intent at meeting the viewer half way providing a strong visual basis in their elongated form that in the female figures are sensuous and charming, yet highly expressive. It leads a return to the imagination in leaving the viewer to ponder what will happen next to the subject McCarthy depicts.His work is inspired by contemporary every day scenes, birds, animals and fish and he lets the work evolve on its own merits. The humour of the pieces such as ‘Catwalk Model’ or ‘Woman Walking a Dog’ is reflective of his personality. Earlier in his career he used clay, a more traditional medium that allowed more realism in his work especially through proportion and treatment of surrounding space. Due to its quick drying properties he soon abandoned this and felt that he had developed realism to its fullest potential in his own artistic language. It was more through the liberation of wax as a medium, or copper that the apparent elongation began, seen in his figures and birds. The extension of figures wasn’t deliberate or contrived it was accidental in that the forms developed in this way during their creation. Of his subject matter he says, “I am always looking for other subjects” . In his career he was “constantly making things up from bits of timber mostly animal forms in movement”. In many of his pieces he initially works from sketches and earlier in his career he worked from model. A lot of his work though evolves from the imagination and even though it is visually based it has abstract tendencies, looking at purity of form. His more abstract work is untitled. Sometimes he also does landscape pieces in timber that are semi abstract such as “Scattered Showers”. Yet he feels all of his work has linking thread.