ABOUT JAMES

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James Groleau was born in Lewiston, Maine in 1960. He first learned printmaking at City College in San Francisco in the 1990’s, where he was introduced to mezzotint, an engraving technique which relies on tones to define and create an image. This technique, known for its fine detail and overall soft quality, was developed in the seventeenth century and has changed little since its inception. After many years of refining his efforts at mezzotint James turned his attention to collage. He first creates a palette for a piece by painting sheets of crumpled paper with color ink. He then tears or cuts the paper into pieces and applies the pieces to stretched canvas, thereby creating the image.

 

James continues to develop his technique, sometimes working over the collage with pen, pencil or brushwork. 

 

Jame sis the recipient of numerous awards, grants and fellowships, including residencies at the MacDowell Colony in New Hampshire, Engramme in Quebec City, St Michaels’s Printshop in Newfoundland, and the Frans Masereel Centrum in Belgium. His work is included in the collections of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; Portland Museum of Art, Maine; Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio; Oakland Museum of California; Royal Museum of Fine Art, Antwerp, Belgium; among other national and international museums. A solo show of his mezzotints was displayed at the Ekaterinburg Museum of Fine Arts, Russia in 2013. James continues to develop his collage technique producing abstract and semi-abstracted landscapes as well as representational work. He divides his time between the San Francisco Bay area and coastal Maine.

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