James Charles Hester is a British born artist primarily working in paint on canvas. His obsession with texture and the harmony of colour in nature began when he took a 35mm camera to document an abandoned section of the Cliveden estate, Berkshire. Where he was soon caught by a security guard, who instead of reporting him to the police, kindly permitted another hour of exploration in that strange and silent place where nature had triumphed in claiming back what mankind had put there. 

  It is this singular event that has sustained itself in the artist’s memory as though it were the purest of chords struck. Half a lifetime on and with visits to cities such as Venice, Reykjavik and Valletta - with their myriad layers of deep history on view - this obsession with mysterious atmospheres, weathered texture and the more subtle beauty of nature has only grown further still.