When you see the title Marinade, you might be forgiven for expecting some sort of culinary workshop. But Stephen James chose the word as the name for his second solo Canberra exhibition of paintings.

"[The name] refers to the theme of the paintings, a marine theme, and it's a play on words on the way oil is used to ... bring a special seasoning to images and experiences," James says.

There are around 40 paintings in the exhibition, and many of theme are on the maine theme. Inland Sea, for example, depicts a ship as a symbol of the role of the boat in Australian mythology.

"The explorers, like John Oxley, dragged boats through the dry inland in search of the inland seas - there's as idea of heroic folly in that." The precariousness of the boat as a method of travel over long and dangerous routes also appealed to James.

His other paintings in Marinade include still lifes, rural and beach scenes and lady bowlers, among other images of "Australian popular mythology", and they are all painted in a style which James describes as Expressionistic, influenced by German and Australian Expressionism.

He paints figuratively, but the images are not intended to be photo-realistic. "I'm not attempting to represent reality but to give an emotional response." The paintings in Marinade have been completed over the past two years, mainly in the last 12 months. James moved to Canberra with his family three years ago from Sydney and has been concentrating on his work.

James was born in Cessnock, and says that although he was always drawing and painting. "In country New South Wales in the '60-s there wasn't much opportunity to pursue it". He worked in surveying and nursing but after night classes at the Sydney CAE he focused more on art, completing undergraduate degrees at the College of Fine Arts at the University of Sydney (sic). He has exhibited regularly in Sydney and Canberra and was a finalist in last year's Inaugural Canberra Art Prize.

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