James Drinkwater
April 10, 2022

Something in the water for Newcastle artist James Drinkwater.

For Newcastle artist James Drinkwater the ocean has always been a place of clarity and creativity. After living overseas, the coast called him home and a new family chapter began.

There’s something special about 32°S/151° E. Punch in the coordinates, head north over the Sydney Harbour Bridge for a couple of hours and you’ll arrive at James Drinkwater’s church: the Newcastle Art Gallery.

Drinkwater, who came back to the east coast via Europe, had saved the gallery as ‘home’ in his GPS. “It’s been my church, and my place of sanctuary and the way I accessed culture as a young boy,” says Drinkwater.

He grew up in Newcastle, studying art there before attending the National Art School in Sydney, then moving to Melbourne and later Berlin to explore the idea of being a full-time working artist.

It’s a move that paid off. Drinkwater has been awarded the Brett Whiteley Travelling Scholarship, the John Olsen National Art School Life Drawing Prize, and has been a finalist in the Wynne and Sulman Prize, among many others. 

Drinkwater, who came back to the east coast via Europe, had saved the gallery as ‘home’ in his GPS.

“It’s been my church, and my place of sanctuary and the way I accessed culture as a young boy,” says Drinkwater.

James Drinkwater
James Drinkwater

He has also undertaken residencies in Kenya, Paris and Tahiti, and in a full-circle moment, the Newcastle Art Gallery presented a survey exhibition of his works in 2019, titled JAMES DRINKWATER: the sea calls me by name, which he describes as “an absolute honour and dream.”

Drinkwater’s wife Lottie Consalvo is also an artist. Originally from Melbourne, she had spent summers visiting family in Newcastle, so the desire to return was very much shared. “We wanted to have babies. And we wanted to do that by the sea,” says Drinkwater. “Back then, Newcastle was still a town with a lot of empty space, with factories and warehouses in the city. And you could still strike up deals like swapping a painting for a studio for a year. I knew we could hustle here.”

“I’m really proud of what the town’s doing, and that it’s growing up, but I didn’t really mind either way because for me, it really is about space and the sea and family. Those three key aspects are still primary in the way I approach each day in my studio.”

James Drinkwater

His children are now an endless source of inspiration for him. “We spend our whole careers trying to get back to that place of no baggage…kids do things you couldn’t plan – and straight away I’m using the word ‘plan’, like, there is no plan. The best paintings are made, in my opinion, with no plan. Just following impulses. A series of impulses is a day in the studio. And if you tune into them, and trust them, then it can only be right.”

Drinkwater likes to have anywhere between “five and 30 things happening at once…

If I’m working on painting, ceramics, or fashion, or ballet… it’s all one language.

“Because I love that sort of conversation you get in the studio with them all and they all promote things to happen within each other.”

At present, those ‘things’ include a new show at the Nicholas Thompson Gallery in late July – SAND DRAWINGS and other tropes. And, a ballet – Storm Approaching Wangi and Other Desires – based on a William Dobell painting (and Drinkwater’s own version of it) opening in November at MAP mima, Lake Macquarie.

For anyone who’s followed his career, somehow this makes perfect sense. He took ballet lessons as an adult, to help him better understand the body (and there was a resulting art series) but more so, it seems to speak to Drinkwater’s desire to always create, whatever the medium. “It’s so exciting,” he says of the collaboration between choreographers Belle Beasley and Skip Willcox, composer Joe Franklin, and himself on costumes and sets.

“But what’s kind of weird is it doesn’t feel any different. I don’t want to be definable. It’s just about impulses. If I’m working on painting, ceramics, or fashion, or ballet … it’s all one language.”

And it’s all happening for him, in this city by the sea. “I just love the town. I loved it when it was an underdog, and I’ll love it now that it’s coming up as well. It’s love without conditions… I look at the ocean every day. And that’s clarity, and cleansing, and I wouldn’t change it for the world.”

PHOTOGRAPHY | DEAN BELETICH & BEN ADAMS
ALL IMAGES FROM THE BOXER/ROUND 2 – OLD PHOTOS MAKE ME CRY © 2022 PRISM EDITIONS
ARTWORK | JAMES DRINKWATER
WORDS | ROSIE DOUBLE

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