James, a young award-winning artist, based in Bolton, graduated with a BA (Hons) in Graphic Art from Leeds Metropolitan University.

James creates breathtaking landscapes that bear the ravages of time and the elements. These stunning vistas are imposing and intimidating and yet express a sense of wonder through the epic forces of nature.

James prefers the work to speak for itself, allowing the individual viewer his own personal dialogue with the image.

His work has been compared with that of the great British landscape artist, Turner, and James admits to Turner being one of the painters he admires, because of the playfulness and economy of his painting that allows figurative elements to act as an anchor and give reference to his abstract markings.

James doesn’t paint from sketches or photographs of the landscape around him. He describes his work as slightly abstract in the way that he has no firm idea of how the work will start or turn out and believes that the paintings “come out of the paint itself”.

Daily walks in the nearby Lancashire countryside, allows James to make some subtle observations. "When I'm out walking, I'm not looking for entire landscapes to paint.

“I concentrate on instances, rather than images that can be pinned down. For example, I may find a pile of leaves transformed by the conditions, by the light.

"From there, it is about recreating those sensations in my work.

"Things come out of the blue, as long as you're open to them."

l The exhibition runs until October 5 at the Gascoigne Gallery on Royal Parade.