Andrew Holmes, Painter, UK

“The representational food pieces offered me a vocabulary to describe the modern sociological landscape. To present a traditional or superficial normality but overlaid with a subtext of desire and temptation”

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Andrew Holmes, Painter, UK

Andrew Holmes was born in Kent, south-east England, in 1959. After gaining a Graphic Arts Degree with Distinction, in Cornwall, and becoming attracted to the medium of advertising and visual communication, Andrew began a career in London as an illustrator and art director developing visual ideas and solutions. Building on an appreciation of art, much of the work produced during this time was inspired by the styles and compositional techniques of artistic genres and artists. The influence of popular culture, classical realism and abstraction is carried through into his work today. During this time Andrew produced commissions and exhibition pieces but it was not until 2008 that he began to divide his time between projects as both a painter and an illustrator.

Artist Statement

I’m curious about the aesthetics and content of art, what it is that unconsciously or intuitively tells us if we like or accept it as art and how it inhabits a space. Being informed by the environment and culture we live in, defining art must be intuitive, an emotional or intellectual response.

My interest in the medium of painting is, not only as a visual communicator but as a physical artifact.

Working in both figurative and non-representational forms the subject and composition of a work dictates the approach I employ. As a painter, I work with mediums and techniques; as an artist, I use those skills to explore and communicate new ideas. Allowing the work to evolve through the medium and by choosing a variety of methods to describe the components I am endeavoring to make art which is aesthetic and technically accomplished, to attempt an intrinsic value. My core motivation is to explore and experiment, to continue developing and challenging the boundaries of my own work.

The representational food pieces offered me a vocabulary to describe the modern sociological landscape. To present a traditional or superficial normality but overlaid with a subtext of desire and temptation. In the paintings, the depiction of shapes, red, rich colours, glossy and wet surfaces, liquids dripping and pouring, are indirect references to the erotic and sensual. The images are a metaphor to reflect components of the human condition. To taste and consume a cake is above all, a sensory experience.

https://andrewholmesart.wordpress.com/

 

Gallery 4 – The Iluustrious Andrew Holmes

Gallery 3 – All Wet

Gallery 2 – A Venetian State of Mind

Gallery 1 – Desire and Temptation