San Diego artist James Watts and 100 Paintings!

Have you visited the downtown studio of San Diego artist James Watts (@jewattso)? The experience will blow your mind!

I’m personally inspired by James Watts. Like a perpetual motion machine, he happily creates, creates and creates. His studio is so jam-packed with creative genius that you don’t know in which direction to turn your eyes.

That’s going to be more true than ever, because he’s now in the middle of a new project. He’s creating 100 Paintings!

James showed me his work yesterday when I happened to walk by the open door of his magical studio. He has finished 18 of the 100 paintings so far.

His paintings are in groups of five; each group includes a still life, a nude, a portrait, a cityscape, and a symbolic or literary painting. He intentionally emulates the styles of different famous painters.

Gazing about his studio, you’ll notice that many works of art–paintings and sculptures–depict characters from classic novels, history or mythology. When he was a kid, James loved to sit in the library and read comic books and magazines. Today, as an accomplished visual artist, he brings the written word to life in new, fantastic ways.

For some reason, James reminds me of science fiction and fantasy author Ray Bradbury. His energetic love of life. His love of everything–from pop culture to the classics. His smile and enthusiasm.

Up next is a painting showing James Watts’ studio. Do you recognize it? Look for the art-filled windows (and his cats) in downtown San Diego on 7th Avenue between C Street and Broadway.

A couple of photos of new paintings inside the studio…

The next photo shows a painting inspired by Franz Kafka’s The Metamorphosis! (Lying next to it is a lamppost just outside the studio.)

James loves to use wood and other materials for his myriad projects. The next photo shows wood block finger puppets painted with images from the Epic of Gilgamesh!

Endless wonders fill the downtown studio of San Diego artist James Watts!

…

I post new blogs pretty often. If you like discovering new things, bookmark coolsandiegosights.com and swing on by occasionally!

I live in downtown San Diego and love to walk around with my camera! You can follow Cool San Diego Sights via Facebook or X.

Thank you for sharing!