Despite his advancing years (let’s just say middle age is in the rear view), James likes to think of himself as Nature Boy. He spends his days doing what he loves most—tramping through Bay Area back country, painting landscapes, birds, and other wild creatures, including humans. His studio is filled with half-finished works, a whiff of pastel dust, and the occasional feather or stray leaf that hitchhiked in from his latest outdoor adventure.

James has always been fascinated by the way nature fits together—how rivers carve through mountains, how a hawk’s wings seem built for the wind, how even the messiest-looking forests have a kind of hidden order. He tries to capture that in his work, though he sometimes wonders if nature is playing a joke on him when a “simple” tree turns into an all-day struggle of tangled branches and shifting shadows. But that’s all part of the process.

His paintings aren’t just about what things look like; they’re about how they feel—the crisp air of early morning, the quiet dignity of a deer standing in the mist, the barely contained chaos of a flock of birds taking off all at once. With each new piece, James, aka Nature Boy, hopes to share the sense of wonder (and occasional frustration) that comes with trying to keep up with nature’s endless creativity. And if his work makes people stop, smile, and maybe even look at the world a little differently, then he figures he’s doing something right.