Born in Norfolk in 1972, James Gillick holds a degree in Landscape Architecture from Cheltenham and Gloucester College, though his practice is rooted firmly in the figurative oil painting tradition.
Working from a studio in Louth, Lincolnshire, he handcrafts all his own materials using techniques dating to the seventeenth century, grinding pigments to produce paints, waxes, varnishes, and canvases entirely by hand, and painting with a limited palette of six colours plus black and white. His subjects span still life, game paintings, portraits, and horses. Notable commissions include portraits of Margaret Thatcher and Pope John Paul II, as well as church restoration work whose influence extends to the parish church in Oxford where J.R.R. Tolkien was a parishioner. He has exhibited at Park Walk Gallery in London since 2000, the Royal Institute of Oil Painters, the Royal Society of Portrait Painters, and the London Art Fair. He is based in Louth, Lincolnshire.