JAMES LANGLEY

Botanical Studies / Langley Art Studio / New Release

James Langley has recently created a suite of watercolor drawings inspired by Antique Botanical Studies.

The Langley watercolor paintings presented in the Botanical Studies Gallery are "in the school of" Giovanni Baptista Ferrari (1584-1655) a Jesuit Priest, the first of whose elaborately illustrated books on botanical subjects, "Flora seu de florum cultura libri IV"  was published in Rome, 1638 under the patronage of Cardinal Francesco Barberini.

American Artist / Drawing Magazine Fall 2009 Edition: "Express The Universal" article by Bob Bahr on the drawing of James Langley.

 

Hillsdale College Art Department Presents;

Memory and Desire

The Figurative Art of James Langley

September 21 - October 19, 2008

Daughtrey Gallery

Sage Center for the Arts, Hillsdale College

81 East College Street, Hillsdale, Michigan

preview exhibition and interview:

Download jameslangleybooklet_update31.pdf

Portable Icon Commissioned for the private use of Fr. Bede Kotlinski O.S.B., St Andrews Abbey, Cleveland, Ohio.

BEATUS VIR TRIPTYCH

Sacra Conversatione with Saints Benedict and Teresa Benedicta of the Cross

Langley Cartoon Drawing (early state above, second state below) for center panel of Beatus Vir

conte crayon with pigments on 40"x32" museum rag board (image size:32"x24")

 
 
 

James Langley / Pittore 2005-08 "20 x 16" open 20"x32", oil and egg tempera with clay bole and gold leaf on solid poplar.

Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross Confessor and Martyr and Holy Father Benedict, Patron of Europe. Side Panels 20"x8" egg tempera and oil on panel.

 

And there appeared a great wonder in heaven:

a woman with a crown of twelve stars upon her head. —Clothed with the sun. —The moon at her feet (Apoc 12:1).

Langley Concetto I: Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, scaled to 16'x10' Altar Retablo, pencil and ink heightened with gouache.

a woman clothed in the sun

(Below) Langley Modello II: The Virgen of Guadalupe, graphite and ink with watercolor on paper 36"x20.25" cartoon for transfer to 16'x9' canvas

 

 

(Below) Langley Capriccio: Virgen de Sol, Pencil with watercolor wash, heightened with white chalk on paper.

 

This Langley pencil drawing with watercolor wash heightened with white chalk reflects the artists fascination for one of Velázquez's earliest known works of about 1618 and its relationship to the 1531 Image of The Virgin of Guadalupe, on account of which nine million Mexicans were baptized by 1550 and which even today continues to be venerated as a miraculous icon in its original setting.

A curious aspect of this drawing is the resemblance of Virgin to the wife of the artist and of the angel upholding her garments to the artist himself.

The Velazquez painting of "The Immaculate Conception" which hung together with its companion painting, "Saint John on the Island of Patmos" was first recorded as housed in a Carmelite convent in Seville.  The Carmelites were particularly devoted the Virgin Mary under her title of the Immaculate Conception and to its doctrine.

These wonderful images are part of a broader pictorial tradition bearing an interesting correspondence to the book of Revelation. A well developed exploration of this theme can be found in "Visions from Patmos-Tenochtitlan: The Eagle Woman", by Jaime Cuadriello in a Beautifully illustrated book on Our Lady of Guadalupe entitled Artes de Mexico.

Visions of Guadalupe : http://www.inside-mexico.com/books/ourladyofguadalupe.htm

 

Langley painting commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Oil on plaster 20" x120" architectural ornament. Location: the Israel Sack Galleries in the American Wing, MMA, NY. NY. (photograph courtesy of Douglas Walker).

Painting for the Metropolitan Museum of Art

(New York, January 23, 2007)—A suite of galleries devoted to American art created between 1810 and 1840 was formally opened on the first floor of the American Wing at The Metropolitan Museum of Art today. The opening of the new galleries marks the completion of the first phase of a project to reconfigure, renovate, or upgrade nearly every section of the American Wing by 2010. A major goal of the plan is to improve public access to, and visitor flow within, the American Wing galleries.

A essay appearing in the February 2007 edition of The Magazine Antiques, by American Wing Director and Curator, Peter Kenny describes the creation of the new classical galleries to provide period context for the museum collection following design by Thomas Gordon Smith Architects. "The north-south axis of the new classical galleries is a treat for the eye...on the south side of the new crossing is a gallery with walls painted to resemble ashlar with grisaille panels of paired classical genii and ascanthus volutes..."

Portrait: Cedric Stratton Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Physical Chemistry, Armstrong Atlantic State University, Savannah, Georgia.

 Oil on canvas, Langley 2008 

Portrait of Dr.Cedric Stratton,
Charcoal with watercolor wash heightened with white chalk on 22x30 watercolor paper, signed and dated lower right: Langley 2007 

Stations of the Cross

Fourteen paintings

By James Langley 

On View in the Nave of St James Catholic Church, 8412 Whitfield Ave. Savannah, GA 31406

January 29 – February 2, 2009

Open Via Dolorosa Paintings

These Stations of the Cross were commissioned by St Paul Catholic Church in Pensacola Florida where they were permanently installed in February 2009.

True religious art has the power to stir the deepest longings of the human heart for God.  

James Langley: from an interview for Catholic World Report.

Bringing Beauty Into the World

SCAD Professor James Langley balances career as Teacher and Artist. Text by Jennifer Long, Photos by Wayne Moore . Fall 2006 Edition of THE MAGAZINE, Savannah College of Art and Design, volume 10 number 1.

For a painter who has been commissioned by the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center, and who has taught at universities and museums around the world, Savannah College of Art and Design professor James Langley finds his ideal subjects exist remarkably close to home.

The Redemption of Catholic Art

Interview with Benjamin Wiker for Catholic World Report: November 2005 volume 15 Number 10.

Artist James Langley reflects, in an interview with Benjamin Wiker, on the state of Catholic art today, the apostolate of the catholic artist, and how we can recover an aesthetic representative of truth and beauty.