Learn about Jim Spelman

I own two, busy, vibrant and award winning photography-based studio businesses: Spelman & Co. Commercial Food and Product Photography and SpelmanArt Prints, Home Decor and Fashion Accessories.  I've been successfully photographing commercially and artistically for over 20 years. All of the Home Decor, Fashion Accessories and Limited Edition Artworks of SpelmanArt are the result of many years of passionate pursuit, thousands upon thousands of tiny to huge trials and errors, countless winning and 'failing' experiments and loads of celebrating the 'Ah ahh' moments as well as the 'back to the drawing board' times. In the end, it's always about making a difference, inspiring and having a little fun along the way!

Above:  The studio is always humming!  Shooting, printing, playing. That's what we're all about! : )

Publications & Clients

Saatchi Art, Sony Pictures, Lexus, Ford, Starbucks, Campfire, Marie Claire, The Observer, V Magazine New York, Fat Wallet, Iron Works Hotels, Delafield Hotel,  Lucy's #7 Burger Bar, Stucchi, Bespoke Textiles London 

My Creation Process

The flowers you see in my SpelmanArt prints and collections are hand-picked from my own home flower garden and photographed in the studio.  The color bursts are produced underwater in the studio using mixtures of inks, oils and water to produce moments of crazy color and bursts of pure design. Catching these moments is my 'mad scientist' dance of sorts clicking, pouring, mixing, concocting, orchestrating and capturing the magic. Each photograph is a distinct once-in-a-lifetime moment that you can enjoy fully in any of our home decor and accessory designs. I use the industry's best Canon 'L' glass lenses and cameras (50 + megapixels) to capture the split second dances of light, water, oils, inks and magic.

Video Below: My art process is born from an excitement in experimenting.  Below I discuss what's behind my 'Exhale' artwork and my print process from photographing through printing and framing (which we do all right in the studio!).

 

Jim's Artist Statement - Inspirations

My main artistic premise (whether I'm shooting a street view or a color bomb in the studio) is that surfaces hold our view, but knowing goes below this obvious, thin veil into the depths of lightness and of darkness ultimately lying in the universe of the smallest details. All of us, I  believe, possess simple and complex, dark and light, color and gray, crazy and calm within ourselves.  My work celebrates and explores our natural opposites. Looking closely at my work you'll see influences of some of my hero artists and their philosophies: Georgia O'Keeffe's flowing floral modernism, Hieronymus Bosch's fantastical paintings,  Jackson Pollock's colorful, striking abstract impressionism, Salvador Dali's thought provoking surrealism and the provocative Andy Warhol's photography amongst others.  I invite you to dive in and explore my works and see for yourself.  My hope is that a piece or two will deeply resonate with you.

I'd like my bold statement artwork and my functional art decor and accessories to adorn your walls in your homes, offices and businesses, to be carried with you and to be of beautiful use to you.  My mission is that my art not only be the perfect color, design element and mood solution for you but that it also inspires you and, through my own soul-fulfilling exploration, helps you in your own life, experiments and transformations--at least in some small, inspirational way.

Above:  The studio in full SpelmanArt shooting mode surrounded by some of my 'vision board' inspiration images from O'Keeffe, Pollock, Bosch and Dali.

Jim's Photography Journey

I 'grew up' photographically in London, England.  I lived there for almost seven years and was blessed to be able to shoot fashion and beauty all over the world including London, Paris, Milan, New York, South Africa, Mauritius and Uganda for international clients, celebrities and magazines.  I only include this here because that experience really shaped how I view not only the world, but also how I approach my photography and art.  I see the world as bigger than me...bigger than us.  Those years taught me to view the world in terms of adventure, of bigness, of boldness and of risk taking.  Working side by side with some of the world's best talent layered within my soul an intuition for beauty, detail, heart and composition for all of my imagery...especially the art that you see here on SpelmanArt.

 

Above:  A few of my shots from Milan, London and Paris from magazines (Marie Claire, The Observer and Anna Milan) and a London clothing advertisement. (Firetrap London). 

 

Above SpelmanArtworks (from left to right): Exhale, Being, Dream and Breathe. I do equate my SpelmanArt collections with fashion and beauty photography's flow, composition, feeling and soul.

I appreciate you being here!  Please let me know using the contact page if you have any questions about me, my art or my processes.  I'm always up for an email chat!