SCIRIA Reader in Painting with the Computer 

Research Interests

Painting, Drawing, Criticism, Digital Arts

Peer Esteem

2000 - present: External  Examiner, MA Computer Arts, Thames Valley University

Since 2000, Member of The London Group.

Biography - Profile

James Faure Walker (born 1948, London) studied painting and aesthetics at St Martins (1966-70) and the Royal College of Art (1970-72). He began writing criticism in the mid 1970s, and in 1976 he co-founded Artscribe - a journal for contemporary arts which he edited until 1983. His writings have been published in Studio International, Modern Painters, Mute, Computer Generated Imaging, Wired, Art Review, and he has contributed to a number of exhibition catalogues. A long-standing contributor to Siggraph, the annual conference on computer graphics, he has participated in numerous international computer arts festivals and exhibited widely in Austria, Germany, Holland, Japan, Russia, Spain and the USA. In 1998, he won the Golden Plotter first prize at Computerkunst, Gladbeck, Germany. Recent exhibitions include solo shows at DAM Gallery, Berlin, Digital Salon, New York and Bloomberg Space, London. He was awarded a three year AHRB Fellowship for research into painting and the digital studio in 2002, and is the author of 'Painting the Digital River: How an Artist Learned to Love the Computer', published by Prentice Hall (USA) in 2006.

Current Research - Artist Statement

Having recently completed 'Painting the Digital River' I want to continue searching for ways of mixing and blending paint software with painting. I remain fascinated, too, by the shifting attitudes towards the use of technology in drawing and painting. In the latter stages of researching some illustrations for this book I became fascinated with the depiction of water. I have been photographing rock pools and water patterns left in sand. I also have developed a renewed interest in medieval and early renaissance painting.

In broader terms, and thinking forward to a further publication, or conference, I have been exploring the way the 'other worlds' in science - such as the immense spaces of astrophysics, the nano worlds of micro biology - could find some reflection in visual art. It is the question of how artists can make connections in their work beyond what is immediately visible, beyond the conventional subjects. In one sense our knowledge has reached out further than ever before, yet at the same time we speak of art having its own 'art world', its own local habitat, its comfort zone.

I am interested in raising the 'art' awareness in the development of software; also in the shape of new fine art courses incorporating digital expertise; in the future of digital painting; in redefining drawing; in producing a 'project manual' for visual thinking using computer graphics concepts. I am particularly interested in Walter Crane and Lewis Day's publications of the early 1900s, and how they anticipate these thoughts. Though I am suspicious of any instant remedies for the problem of integrating digital tools with traditional methods, I wonder whether a future generation will look back and wonder why painting, drawing, photography and digital media were studied separately.

Research Outputs - Selection

Publications
Faure Walker, James 'Painting the Digital River: How an Artist Learned to Love the Computer'. Prentice Hall (USA) 2006

Solo Exhbitions
2006   Fosterart, London
2006   Painting the Digital River, Fosterart Gallery, London (pdf press release)
2003   Galerie Wolf Lieser, Berlin

Group Exhibitions
2006   IDEAS 2006, San Diego, USA
2006   Singer and Friedlander Watercolour Competition, Mall Galleries
2006   Computerkunst, Gladbeck, Germany
2006   Summer exhibition, Fosterart, London
2006   Arti Salon, Amsterdam, Holland
2006    Arti et Amicitiae's Salon, Amsterdam
2006   The London Group Annual Exhibition, Bankside Gallery, and Sassoon Gallery, London
2005    'British Art from 1979', Bloomberg Space, London
2003    Siggraph Art Gallery, San Diego

Papers, Lectures, Talks
2006   'Painting in a Digital World: I told you so', SIGGRAPH conference, Boston, USA. Essay published in the Electronic Art and Animation Catalogue
2006   Panel member, 'Drawing the Future', Drawing Symposium, National Gallery, London (to be published by University of the Arts, edited by Stephen Farthing).
2006   Organising panel, 'Art and Other Worlds', Camberwell Arts Festival, London.
2004   Invited Keynote Speaker, 'The reckless and the artless: practical research and digital painting', paper presented at Research into Practice conference (published in Working Papers in Art and Design, refereed journal).
2004  'Painting Digital and Letting Go', paper given at CHArt conference 'Futures Past: Twenty Years of Arts Computing', Birkbeck, University of London (published online). 

Supervision Expertise

Painting, Drawing, Digital Art

Current Research Students

Angela Rogers - Drawing conversations

Past Research Students

Theresa Garton Jones - Drawing and artificial intelligence (Kingston College, London)

Related Links

DAM Digital Arts Museum - Artist profile

Working Papers in Art & Design, Vol 3 -  Read online

CHArt - Futures Past: Twenty Years of Arts Computing - Read online

E-mail address