Rebecca James - Before We Had Phones (We Were Perfect)

Rebecca is an emerging artist from Warrnambool, Victoria. She loves to paint people and has a genuine sense of appreciation for the wonder and mystery of humanity. Whether it’s the feeling of loneliness and despair that can sometimes plague each one of us, or the joy of connecting at a party or in public spaces, her paintings are a celebration of all that is human. She is interested in the stories that connect us, narratives that help us make sense of the world and discover meaning. In these increasingly polarised and atomised times the characters in her paintings remind us that we are more alike than we are different.

Rebecca is inspired by the work of both contemporary and classic artists and creates her paintings by first imagining a scenario or feeling. She then looks through old photos, magazine pictures and online images of people to help inspire the composition and form of her painting. Once she’s got a composition on the canvas she works and reworks her paintings, layering the paint and sometimes scraping back and adding or removing elements to the composition until she has a piece she’s happy with.

She has been a finalist in both the Mandorla Art Prize and the Biblio Art Prize and she has exhibited with Bluethumb Art Gallery at the Affordable Art Fair and in the Next Wave Exhibition in Melbourne. Her work was recently selected to exhibit in the ACB Selects exhibition in Sydney. She has five children, one husband, and a scruffy old dog — and lives in a very small house on a big block of land.