When James Elton was a kid in Richmond he would kick his soccer ball into the fog and look up at the North Shore mountains.
“I would say some day when I grow up I’m going to buy a house on the top of that mountain. And that’s why I’m here at the top of Lonsdale,” notes James, who has lived in North Vancouver for more than two decades.
His path across the inlet wound through two careers, and along the way he maintained a particularly strong love of art.
“I’ve always loved the arts so I’ve been painting and drawing all my life,” he says.
The seeds were sown early, and by the time he was 10 years old James was attending classes at the Vancouver Art Gallery thanks to his mom recognizing his aptitude for art and his brother’s interest in music. (His brother Dennis went on to become a trumpet player and played in a band with Jimmy Pattison.)
As a teen, James attended the Vancouver School of Art, now Emily Carr University. But while his mother encouraged his love of art, his father, a training officer during the Second World War, encouraged him to join the navy at the age of 17.
“The Korean War was raging at that time so I joined the Royal Canadian Navy,” James recalls.
After completing an apprenticeship as an aviation technologist, he served aboard the aircraft carrier HMCS Bonaventure. James was later posted to Nova Scotia and attended the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design while there.
Then in the 1960s, he was sent out to maintain the helicopters of the VU 33 Squadron in Victoria, a search and rescue unit at the time, and later returned to Nova Scotia to teach mechanical drafting at the Naval Aviation Maintenance School.
When it’s noted that his career took him back and forth from coast to coast, James replies quickly, “Your navy is on both coasts, not much in the middle.”
Around 1967, the Canadian Armed Forces were integrated and James was posted to the Aerospace Engineering Test Establishment in Cold Lake, Alta.
There he tested “everything that flew,” including aircraft, weapons, and even clothing.
His last two years of service were spent with the front-line fighter squadron 434, also at Cold Lake. He was responsible for the maintenance of their 12 fighter planes, each worth about $18 million.
Throughout his service, James says he used both sides of his brain. Logic served him well as a mechanical engineer, but he continued to nourish his creative side by painting and drawing. He took private lessons from other artists, and taught both kids and adults in his spare time. He also exhibited and sold his art work on and off over the years.
After retiring from the service at the age of 44, James and his wife Phae (an Irish name pronounced “Fay”) moved to North Vancouver and bought a house together.
She became a nurse at Lions Gate Hospital and he attended then Capilano College’s business management program. After graduating, he began his second career as a stock broker and the couple had two children, Susie and Les.
In 1991, Susie, who inherited some of her father’s interest in the arts (although her love was drama) and was active on stage, died after an anaphylactic reaction to nuts. She was just 28 years old.
After 20 years as a stockbroker with different firms, James decided to leave the work force after Phae died of a brain tumour in 2001.
He turned his attention back to art full-time and says focusing on his passion served as an outlet for dealing with his loss. Having family close by also helped.
His son Les now lives in a basement suite at his house, works in the technology sector, and has two kids.
Recently, at the urging of a friend, James became an art instructor at the West Vancouver Seniors Activity Centre and now teaches a weekly studio class to a group of 16 budding artists. He works in all mediums, including acrylics, water colour, pastels, and charcoal, and teaches anything and everything. He wants his students to enjoy art as much as he does.
“They’re interested in enjoying themselves and having fun and if a little bit of skill comes out of it that’s fine,” he says of his class.
He has one simple rule for his class: “Have fun or go home, one or the other.”
Outside of class, James still paints every day at his home studio, and can often be found peddling his paintings alongside fellow artists at Painters’ Landing near the Ferry Building Gallery.
After pursuing two different careers during his working life, James says he has now backed into a third, the one he wanted all along: being an artist.
