I was recently commissioned by Great British Racing (GBR) to create a unique piece of artwork to celebrate the King’s Coronation. My work is often inspired by my own photography and my latest collage is based on a photograph I took some years ago of a jockey on horseback at Pontefract Races. The artwork I created has been made entirely from recycled materials with many pieces torn from old race day tickets, catalogues and leaflets, and also some cut from racing silks and cushion covers all supplied by GBR.
When the materials arrived, I knew I had a challenge ahead of me to create a collage 1 x 1.5 m in size in just over a month.
Once I sorted all the items sent to me, I was literally surrounded by a rich colour palette of materials to incorporate into my art. As I would be working in mainly purple, red and gold, I knew exactly which materials to choose.
There were certain items such as caps, helmets, children’s riding clothes, covers for horses, reading books and DVDs that I was unable to use on the canvas. These were donated with permission from GBR to a local riding school, the Bewerley School of Horsemanship. The staff were delighted to receive these and I had the pleasure of meeting one of their horses named Sky:
I was pleased that GBR found out about my environmental art when one of my previous collages The Final Furlong featured in a sustainability report for the horse racing industry. They were impressed with my work and made contact with me.
The Final Furlong had been created for Pontefract Races in 2019 along with three other pieces of artwork to help promote their recycling campaign. At the time Richard Hammill, Chief Operating Officer at Pontefract Racecourse said:
‘Having seen one of James’s exhibitions at the National Coal Mining Museum, we were very excited to have the opportunity to work with him and commission some bespoke artwork to promote the 2019 racing season at Pontefract.
With a campaign geared around sustainability in mind, it was very important to us that we work with someone who is environmentally minded and the fact that James is able to create such innovative and incredible pieces of artwork using old Raceday tickets and badges is breathtaking.
We’re thrilled with the work that James has done and look forward to continuing our relationship with him in the future. James is an inspiration to us all and the Racecourse is thrilled to be working alongside such an up and coming young talent.’
I am delighted now to have the opportunity to return to Pontefract Races on 3rd May where the new piece of artwork to celebrate the King’s Coronation will be unveiled. My use of recycled materials is also in keeping with the King’s great interest in protecting the environment.
The following images show different stages of how I used hole-punched, torn and cut materials in this new collage:
