James Groleau

SALT GRANITE SPRUCE
Salt Granite Spruce is a series of color mezzotints depicting coastal Maine.  Intimations of the Arts and Crafts Movement of the early twentieth century are evident in the palette of greens and grays with additional touches of violet eggplant and ochre. 

ABSENCE OF MALICE / PORTRAITS OF IRAQ
The Absence of Passion is a suite of fifteen mezzotint portraits reflecting the trauma of warfare. Tempered by the partial concealment of facial expression the images depict a range of emotional responses to war from rage to resignation.

OTHER PRINTS

James Groleau was born in Lewiston Maine in 1960. He is self-taught. His first serious drawings were political posters aimed at discouraging registration for a military draft. Later after three months of human rights work in Guatemala he rendered a series of drawings on indigenous life in the highlands for which he received grants from the A. J. Muste Memorial Institute and the Haymarket People's Fund. Groleau has continually stretched his artistic abilities into new techniques and subjects. His works have appeared in numerous exhibitions throughout the United States and abroad. He is currently a member of the California Society of Printmakers and the Bay Printmakers of San Francisco and is a board member for the Graphic Arts Workshop a printmaking cooperative. He lives in San Francisco with his partner writer and activist John Lindsay-Poland.

His works have appeared in numerous exhibitions throughout the United States and abroad. He is currently a member of the California Society of Printmakers and the Bay Printmakers of San Francisco, and is a board member for the Graphic Arts Workshop, a printmaking cooperative. He lives in San Francisco with his partner, writer and activist John Lindsay-Poland.

Despair and the Salt Air

Click on the image below to view this 15 minute film on James Groleau. Interviews with the artist delves into his discovery of the mezzotint and eventual mastery of the process.