James Deane

I’ve been drawing since I was a kid on a farm, going on to study Product Design and Transportation/Car/Mobility Design. I was born in Bendigo in 1963. In the 1960’s the VIC/WA Government offered the opportunity for Victorians to pioneer virgin land in the South of WA, Munglinup. I turned one year old crossing the unsealed Nullarbor 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 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. I grew up helping on the farm, kicking the footy around, and naturally gravitated to drawing for entertainment.

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. 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 the last year and a half. Design work was divided by freehand marker/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 a 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. My painting technique is a work in progress…