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PAINTINGS + DRAWINGS OF EARTH, SEA + SKY ANIMAL + HUMAN FORMS
Strong, energetic and sensitive mark making with expressionistic use of rich colour are the well known keynotes of Andie Clay’s contemporary style of painting and drawing. Vibrant chalk pastels work with and against inks, charcoals and water based paints in dynamic layers that are full of life and energy, whether they be large scale paintings or more intimate studies.
Best known for her richly colourful, fluid paintings of land, sea and sky, Andie also enjoys working from human and animal forms, especially the horse. Themes with feminine origins: earth mother, fertility figures and mother and child are favoured subjects and feed back into the sensual landscape forms of the nearby Preseli mountains.
influences
With Cornish blood in her veins, it comes as no surprise that much of Andie’s inspiration comes from the stunning Celtic landscape surrounding her coastal west Wales home close to the border between Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion, and also from the equally awe-inspiring area surrounding the harbourside family home in South Cornwall.
Having enjoyed the adrenalin flow of the cut and thrust of life and work in central London for many years, in the early 1990s the decision was made to move to her husband’s homeland of west Wales, to change and improve the quality of life.
a sense of place
Living in a historic traditional Welsh farmhouse complete with studio and gallery having picturesque views over Cardigan Bay to the mountains of North Wales and the Lleyn peninsular has had a great influence on Andie’s work over the years.
The strong sense of living on the edge, close to earth’s energies and cycles of ebb and flow has informed her work for more than 20 years. The sense of the primordial power that nature has over mankind is a recurring theme. The placidly sensual, feminine forms of the nearby Preseli mountains where the famous Stonehenge bluestone rock came from, contrasts greatly with the sheer drama of the vertical cliffs tumbling into the ever changing energy of the often turbulent waters of the Irish sea.
themes and methods
After initial drawings made out of doors from life, back in her studio, working in layers of mixed media using strong graphic marks, rich colours and vibrant light effects, Andie manipulates the surface of each painting, lifting off, adding on, rubbing in, watering down, until the desired effect has been achieved. Working in a series allows her to explore her chosen subject more fully, whether it be land, sea and sky, or as in more recent works - horse and foal, mother and child or dancers dancing to the musicians music.
tai chi
Her long term study of the ancient Chinese art of Tai Chi has taught her much and is evident in the way she is prepared to go with the flow and allow things to find their own sense of balance in order to express the innermost feelings she has. Believing it is better to be free from too many sets of rules, she constantly experiments and searches for ways to express and distil her subject matter until she arrives close to the essence of what she sees before her, believing the journey itself to be as valuable as reaching the destination itself.
observations
‘With stunning views across Cardigan Bay, over the Irish Sea to the Lleyn peninsular in north Wales, I cannot but be inspired by the daily views of stunning wide and wild landscape that begin on my doorstep.
Rugged vertiginous cliffs tumbling into everchanging seas with the stunning light you get in this part of the world changing in an instant. To blink or look in a different direction means the loss of at least a million gems, never to be seen again. This setting is so inspiring I attempt drink it all in, making quick scribbles and longer studies, before I return to my studio, and attempt to distil the experiences I have absorbed into series of works on paper or canvas.
Daily walks along the Ceredigion coastal path with its’ tidal estuaries, beaches and fishing harbours bring the added bonus of regular sightings of seals, dolphins, gannets, curlews and much more.
Inland, red kites are becoming an ever more common sight around Cardigan. Beautiful, often fragrant wild flowers abound on the coast path and country lanes for much of the year. The coconut fragrance of newly flowering gorse inspiring a series of artworks, as much as the bare twisted thorn trees clinging grimly on to crumbling cliff edges.
To be part of this landscape, with exposure to the elements on a daily basis, whether the rain is beating down at me almost horizontally, or the sun is choosing to beam down, is a huge part of the experiences that I feed into my artworks.
To me, this is life at the edge, the sense of the earth's primordial forces is
omnipresent. Man may have made his marks but nature in all her frightening power and glory can obliterate them in an instant.
Sketch books bulge with daily recordings of events at the seaside, alongside drawings of scenery so stunning it defies description. Walking along the coast paths of West Wales is my daily dose of sanity – it puts any problems back into perspective and brings me down to earth. A place I thrive to be in.’