James Deane

I’ve been drawing since I was a kid on a farm, going on to study Product Design and Transportation/Mobility Design. I was born in Bendigo in 1963. In the 1960’s the WA Government advertised around Australia encouraging families to pioneer virgin land in the South of WA, Munglinup. I turned one year old crossing the mostly unsealed, corrugated, potholed Nullarbor highway in our old Fargo truck, together with Mum, Dad, and my older brother then five. Life was tough but exhilarating as a Munglinup pioneer, arriving at our uncleared block, without, for many years, electricity, running water, telephone, or sealed roads with nearest neighbors miles away, Esperance the nearest town was 2 hour by car. Truck was home until a basic one room shelter was built, I grew up helping on the farm, kicking the footy around, and naturally gravitated to drawing after comics become over read.

After High School in Esperance I went to Perth to study Product/Industrial Design, and a few years later specializing in Transportation Design in Europe and US. During study I did 2 internships, with Renault in Paris, and Ford in Broadmeadows/Vic.

After design college I joined Honda R&D in Japan, and worked and grew family for the next 33 years in Tokyo. Working in both Advanced and Production studios, mostly on Automobiles and EV’s, but also new forms of Mobility such as eVTOL’s. After Covid I took early retirement to come back to Melbourne my birth state and join my relatives, most of whom I had hardly known.

Although I have been drawing all my life, I have only just taken up painting since late 2023. Nor have I ever exhibited. Design work was divided by freehand marker and chalk sketching, and then with the introduction of the computer, Photoshop digital drawing with E-pencil on screen. In late 2023 I joined an acrylic painting group in Dromana, Mornington run by Carole Foster to get a feel for painting in acrylics. I also want to learn to paint in oils, and I did a 5 week oil painting course at VAS.

As a result of my sketches being accurately transferred into 3D design background, my painting technique is naturally realistic and detailed with close areas in focus and background fading off, as the eye naturally sees. I’m trying to loosen up and experiment with different styles/subjects. My painting technique is a work in progress…