James Lynch grew up in Wiltshire and lives in Somerset. He is a painter of the English landscape and skies, inspired by wild flying with his paraglider. Using the ancient medium of egg tempera (made from raw ground pigments and egg yolks from his own hens) James’ paintings are carefully built up over time with many glazes of paint. This technique allows him to capture his close-hand experience of clouds and skies and the land he knows so well with a wonderful atmospheric quality and dramatic light. As well as working on gesso-coated panels, James also creates smaller, more impromptu paintings on sized paper.
James is largely self-taught, having begun his career in the late 1970s going round villages in Wiltshire on his vintage motorcycle with a sketchbook in his side-car, knocking on doors offering to make house portraits. Successful sell-out exhibitions followed, and he built up a loyal following. He moved away from painting in gouache and took up egg tempera after studying Cennino Cennini’s Renaissance manual and experimenting with the medium over many years.
Early on, James won an award from The Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation and prizes at the Royal Academy and Spectator. He has illustrated the Folio Society edition of the Wind in the Willows, and his paintings are in public and private collections, including The National Trust, Hoare’s Bank and a large panorama on permanent exhibition in the Somerset Museum of Rural Life. There are two publications of his work: ‘Skylines’ and ‘There Never Was a Finer Day’ with poems by Edward Thomas.
James paints from a studio overlooking the Somerset Levels. He and his wife Kate, also a painter, are founder members of a local mumming troupe who perform their plays in pubs and at cider wassails.