James Ainslie

Ainslie’s paintings resonate with an inherent passion for the country’s unique beauty, particularly the sandy dunes and reflective waters of Queensland and South Australia.

Ainslie was born in South Australia in 1950, graduated in art from the South Australian School of Art and has exhibited throughout Australia and overseas since 1975. Sand and water have always inspired his work, harking back to a childhood in South Australia spent playing around the Coorong and exploring the huge sand tracts around the Murray River. Now living in Noosa, he has turned his attention to the undulating dunes of Fraser Island and the many beaches along the Sunshine Coast shoreline.

Annual visits to Broome ensure that Kakadu and the Kimberley remain strong influences.

Ainslie was regularly an artist in residence at Ayers Rock, and was invited to represent South Australia in London with six other artists. He showed at the Museum of Fine Art in Pasadena, USA, with Ainslie Roberts and Garry Duncan. Ainslie won the Camberwell Flora and Fauna Prize in 1990 and was co-winner of the Barossa Valley Heritage Award.

His work is held in collections including Artbank, BP Australia, the Reserve Bank of Australia, Mobil Australia, the William Hancock collection in San Francisco, Bankers Trust and Diamond Merchants, South Africa, as well as many public and private collections worldwide.