Barry Martin-Andrews
Details
How would you describe the work you do and why?
My work is about mood, atmosphere, suggestion, texture and light. I have limited interest in accurate pictorial representation. My heart lies with that fleeting first sense of a place observed for the first time with open eyes and an unbiased heart and mind. My primary drive in approaching landscape painting and drawing is not to ‘only’ capture the physical reality of that scene, but to ‘fuel’ this depiction with the feelings, sensations and emotions that the place inspired in me. This recent work is a collection and thus a celebration of Welsh Landscapes. I deeply love Wales and despite where I travel in the world it's diversity and boundless beauty keep it very close to me, there is almost a genetic familiarity that tells my soul and senses that it is truly home.
For you what does being an artist mean?:
It was a blanket fog, and whilst I stood there feeling overwhelmed with awe. I was deeply inspired to start somehow trying to sketch and capture the vague billowing forms around me. It occurred to me that neither colour, form or detail were key characters in this adumbrative and ethereal landscape. The climatic conditions of the day had reduced all elements to a hundred shades of grey. Since I was little it has always been these kinds of conditions that I find most breathtaking and moving... waves in a sea fog, the hint of a coastline, gently moving treetops in mist, the soft line of a distant hill, the point at which atop some peak or section of moorland, that you literally cannot tell land from sky. It's as though my senses are most elevated by a ‘suggestion’ of what is there... by what I cannot quite see .
Describe what you call yourself/your practice?:
Working in an intuitive and exploratory way, I draw on a wide range of materials; inks, pigments, soot, ash, charcoal, tannin, metal powders, graphite and found elements. Allowing process, time and chance to shape each piece.
CV & Education, relevant & leading to your artistic practice:
I studied HND Photography and BA Illustration at Hereford College of Art, desiring to learn about different aspects of image making in order to incorporate these disciplines back into my lifelong passion for painting
Exhibitions in the last 3 years:
Hawthorn Gallery, 3 Castle Street, Hay-on-Wye
Your gallery outlets/stockists:
Situated in the heart of the picturesque Welsh Marches market town of Hay-on-Wye, Hawthorn Gallery is my personal studio and exhibition space. Over time, Hawthorn has gently evolved from a single artist’s studio into a gallery that celebrates a wider creative community. While my work remains at its heart, the gallery now welcomes a growing number of artists and makers from Wales and across the UK, creating a space where different practices sit comfortably alongside one another.