Hi,

my name is Jim Mellis (James), born in Portsmouth, England, from Irish stock on my mother's side and Romany stock on my fathers. 

     I started on my artistic path by decorating carts and gigs that my father built. Arts and crafts were always around me as my family would be making paper flowers, corn dollies and decorating anything that stood still! Plus my uncles were to be found painting on boards, churns, kettles etc.

     I attended Portsmouth College of Art, enrolling in the Fine Art Degree Course and I loved every minute of it. It was from then that I started to paint and sell my work using local galleries. Since then I have had many exfhibitions over the years. More recently a quantity of my work was purchased by the prestigious 5 star Clarion Hotel in County Cork, Ireland.

     My work is influenced by my travels and love of the sea. My Romany inspired art is mainly from memories and stories of past times. I try to reveal a more gentle and slower time and to enhance this I paint more loosely with a lot of knife work, using a saraffito effect ( a painting technique where an artist scratches into the top layer of the paint to reveal areas of the surface underneath).

     My harbour-scapes are snapshots of estuaries and harbours that I have visited over the years. The colours I use are intentionally warm and comforting, as this is how I feel when I stand looking across the water as it is lapping at the shore. I have owned many boats and worked on an oyster farm and this has helped to fill me with the images that I use as an artist.