About the work
What might the Earth’s particular forms and places be expressions of? This question, and the idea that the Earth itself is an expression of the the Numinous, is at the heart of my work. Incorporating varied combinations of ink, pastel, and paint, the techniques and style vary between focussed mark making and more gestural applications of materials. The intention of this contrast is twofold: expressing the intricate within the vastness of Nature (the infinite within finite form), and also to approach the imaginal 'inner' world beyond the edge of our senses, through the tangible presence of land, sea, and sky.
The mountain, hill, or mound, is the main recurrent motif in my images. Such places have been a source of lifelong fascination to me, both in terms of encounters with awe and wonder, and also the personal, cultural, and spiritual significance that these forms embody. Featuring in wisdom traditions, myth, and folklore around the world, these most striking of earthly expressions are often considered to be transformative and liminal places, where the natural and ‘supernatural’ meet. Existing at the threshold of the unknown, they can be the abode of divine beings, entrances into the otherworld, or be connected with the ancestral history of a community.
​
"The light of nature, the lumen naturae, is a light with a fiery longing to enkindle."
"It is an "invisible" light: Now it follows that in the invisible alone hath man his wisdom, his art, from the light of nature. Man is a “prophet of the natural light”. C.G.Jung - Collected Works 8 ¶ 391
​
​
​
Biography
Andrew (b.1985) is from Worthing, on the coast of West Sussex, between the English Channel and the South Downs. Among the landscapes of his home, are the hills of Cissbury, and Chanctonbury. Both of which have significant histories of human encounter; neolithic flint mines, iron age forts, and in the case of the latter Roman temples, and associations to myth and magic continuing into the present day. From an early age, walking into, and forming a relationship with this land of chalk and flint has provided deep inspiration.
​
Andrew first began to make landscape images whilst studying Ba(Hons) Fine Art: Contemporary Media at the University of South Wales, when the campus was located in Caerleon (2005 - 2008). A key moment in the development of his work came when walking the industrialised landscapes of the valley’s, noticing how some spoil heaps from the mining industry — the scars of a wounded land — were becoming parts of the landscape in their own right, with plant and animal life beginning to return. These observations informed an element in Andrew’s work that is about holding experiences of awe and wonder in Nature, together with the felt sense of what has been lost. His degree dissertation was titled 'Beginning With The Wound: Shamanism in Contemporary Art'.
After graduating with first class honours, Andrew began to work in the field of mental health and social care. To weave together his evolving interest in expression of psyche and soul within art, Andrew undertook the MA Art Psychotherapy training at Goldsmiths College, London (2010 - 2013). In 2015 Andrew moved to Edinburgh, acting upon a long held desire to live in closer proximity to the mountainous North, and the five years during which he lived in Scotland were formative for his art. During this time he exhibited his work regularly, often with Visual Arts Scotland, and The Society of Scottish Artists, of which he became an elected Professional Member in 2019.
In 2020 Andrew returned to Newport in south east Wales, where he now works in private practice as an Art Psychotherapist, in addition to his art making.
​
​