James Childs, “The Bravo”, 1988, Black and White Chalk, 31 x24 Inches
The basis of James Childs’ art today is his study with Richard Lack and R.H.Ives Gammell, an education based in Boston Impressionism and the traditions of the Ecole des Beaux Arts transmitted through Gammell’s master, William McGregor Paxton. Childs amplified these studies by extensive copying of the Masters and comparative research in 19th. Century and Renaisance painting and drawing. The Greek aesthetic informs his personal ideal.
Childs has a B.F.A. from The Minneapolis College of Art and Design and spent a year at Atelier 63 in Haarlem, Holland, founded and taught by members of the expressionist group COBRA, Ger Lataster and Karl Apprl. Since moving to New York in 1987, Childs has mainly supported himself through society portraiture painted in a classical style. He has painted some of the most powerful men and most glamorous women of this era including Christopher Forbes, Carolyne Roehm, Blaine Trump, Elizabeth Ross Johnson, Ursula Corning, and Barbara and Donald Tober.