5–26 September 2026

Tregony Contemporary presents Still Looking, a two-person exhibition bringing together new paintings by British artist James Bland NEAC and American painter Edmond Praybe.

Working across portraiture, the figure, still life, interiors and landscape, Bland and Praybe are distinctive painters whose work shares an engagement with observation and the possibilities of paint, while taking markedly different paths.

 James Bland NEAC

For James Bland, direct experience is often intertwined with memory, atmosphere and personal narrative. His paintings move between description and abstraction, allowing recollection and mood to enter the image and familiar subjects to become something more elusive. Bland was elected a member of the New English Art Club in 2015 and is also a member of Contemporary British Portrait Painters. His first book, Portrait Painting: Abstraction, Storytelling and Mood, was published by Crowood Press in June 2026.

Edmond Praybe approaches the observed world through a strong sense of structure and pictorial balance. His paintings explore the relationships between shape, space, colour and the physical surface of the work, moving between representation and abstraction whether the subject is a solitary object, portrait or more complex figural composition. Praybe studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art and the New York Studio School and has exhibited widely in the United States and internationally. He is a five-time recipient of the Mercedes Matter Award and a member of Zeuxis: An Association of Still Life Painters.

 Edmond Praybe 

The title Still Looking grew from Praybe's description of painting as “an active, ongoing, incomplete state”. It captures something shared by both artists: an understanding of painting not simply as the recording of an image, but as a process of discovery in which perception, experience and the demands of the painting itself continually interact.

Bringing their work together reveals both the differences and unexpected connections between these two painters. Bland's world is shaped by memory, storytelling and atmosphere; Praybe's by structure, relationships and the integrity of the painted surface. In both, the familiar becomes a starting point for something less easily defined.

Still Looking continues Tregony Contemporary's programme of carefully curated exhibitions bringing British and international artists into conversation.

Opening Day — Saturday 5 September
Gallery open from 11am
Drinks in the gallery, 2–5pm 

  Find out more here

 James Bland NEAC