James Beale RE RWA (born 1948) is an award-winning British artist, specialising in printmaking. He is an Academician at the Royal West of England Academy (RWA) and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers. He is the recipient of several awards, including the Windsor and Newton Outstanding Printmaker Award at the Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers (1985) and the Taylor Space Brothers Printmaking Award at the RWA (1997).
Beale regularly exhibits work at Bankside Gallery in London and the RWA in Bristol. His solo exhibitions include Gallery 24, Dorset (1972), Stockwood Art Centre, Bristol (1974), La Galerie, Ismene, France (1976), Park Gallery, Cheltenham (1987) and Selly Manor Museum, Birmingham (1994).
Beale’s work has featured in group exhibitions at various galleries including the Royal Academy of Art and Mall Galleries in London, the Ashmoleon Museum in Oxford, and the Gallery LeFort in Bath. His works are in public and private collections in the UK, France, Canada, Japan, the USA and Australia. One of Beale's pieces is in the Royal permanent collection at Buckingham Palace. His work has been featured on BBC Radio 4.
Beale studied at the Chelsea School of Art (now part of the Chelsea College of Arts) and the Gloucestershire College of Art and Design (now part of the University of Gloucestershire) from 1968-1973. He was awarded the David Murray Studentship in 1971 from the Royal Academy of Arts in London.
Following completion of his studies, Beale was awarded a Fellowship in painting at the Cheltenham School of Art (now part of the University of Gloucestershire). He went on to become a Senior Lecturer and Head of the Printmaking Department at the University of Gloucestershire, retiring in 2006 to concentrate on his own work at his studio in Cheltenham, where he continues to live and work today.
From Beale’s RWA Academician page:
“I work in my own studio in Gloucestershire which is fully equipped for printmaking and has areas for drawing and painting. My work focuses on the mediums of etching, collograph and unique monoprints; these unique prints involve collage and chin collé. Landscape and architecture are starting points for my imagery. I collect information through drawing, photography and written notes.”