Artist Interview
Behind the scenes at My Creative Images By Vivien Jane.
Mycreativeimages Digital Art Gallery
This month we’re talking to Cambridge-based photographer/ digital artist/magazine editor James Hurley creator of the digital art magazine and online digital art gallery ‘My Creative Images’. His artwork is best described in his own words: ‘My work is a mix of traditional landscapes, bursting with vibrancy and colour, and digital art which just pops off the page’. I first met James on our Awake UK photo artist group page on Facebook and was amazed at the variety of artwork and book cover art showcased in the magazine. So I’ve reached out and asked if he’ll share some of his creative processes with us and where he gets his inspiration and energy from. WWW.MYCREATIVEIMAGES.COM
Pictorial Landscape Prints
Limited Edition Digital Artwork Email: james@mycreativeimages.com When and how did you first become interested in photography and digital art? Digitally Enhanced Portrait Photographs Mobile: 07403 019 427 I started taking photographs as a teenager, with a manual SLR (Zenith 11) and quickly got interested in the darkroom development process and the use of hand painting additional colours over a black and white print and the use of dyes to randomly colour an image. Unfortunately, this was a very expensive hobby for a teenager and education then work and family life took me away from this until 2016.
I’ve had a digital camera now for a few years, a present from my wife, but only since taking an online Photo Artistry course did my passion for photography and art reignite and my hunger to learn more is now a living entity! My current focus is on off camera flash portraits and creating both low and high key images that I can then manipulate into a piece of photo digital art. What inspired you to develop a magazine designed to showcase up and coming digital artists in the UK and Europe? One of the most exciting parts about being in the Photo Artistry course was seeing all the artwork the members of the private Facebook group shared for creative comments. The one thing that stuck with me from day 1 was the excitement and pride that rippled across the group when a piece of artwork they submitted was published in the monthly magazine produced by the tutor, Sebastian Michaels. The way I saw it was, yes my artwork may not have been up to the standards of some of the other 46,000+ members of the group but it would be in a few years and although the current magazine was an amazing way of sharing artists work it was focused in the USA, don’t get me wrong there nothing wrong with that but as I live in the UK I really wanted to show off my artwork to potential customers here not in the US. So I parked that thought and carried on learning and practicing. The moment a UK based group of artists set up a private group on Facebook was the trigger for me, as there was endless discussions about the possibilities of a UK magazine and how it would work. So I left my artwork behind for a month or two and focused on the options available to create a magazine and the benefits for me as an artist (yes the initial decisions were based on my needs, but this soon changed as I realised my needs were also the needs of the other artists in the group). The purpose of the magazine initially was a challenge to myself of “can I do this?”. The goal now is to use the magazine to promote photo digital art in the UK. The magazine and developing my own artistic skills have now taken over my life (outside of the normal day job and family life!) and I’m constantly looking for places to promote the magazine and venues that would be interested in displaying the artists work (more news regarding this will be added to next months magazine).
