Artist of the Month: Andrew McIntyre

Written by Andrew McIntyre

Friday, 01 May 2009 00:00

Andrew MacIntyre

Art is a key to my survival. I indulged in painting from an early age, encouraged by my father, a chartered accountant, who was also a skilled watercolorist and oil painter. After a very successful career in business, my father died in 1974. His pallet knife oils hang in my mother’s house, the only tangible remains of his life. Between the ages of 8 and 12, I had a superb Art teacher at the Downs School, Colwall, the formidable Miss Hubbard. Thereafter Art was a joyous hobby I pursued, while my education became designed towards a “practical” career.

But I sketched, I experimented, I occasionally produced a watercolor. About 12 years ago, unable to continue the path I had taken, I experienced a major life crisis. In appalling personal circumstances, I began to produce Art with intent different from previous years. Art was now a necessity, a raison d’être. Art gets me though the week, restoring dreams and hopes, the beauty of creation from the sad pallor of daily routine. I have two main influences, the Mandelbrot Set and Magic Realism. The former inspires me to reflect the confluence of microcosm with macrocosm, the universe as a series of repeated mandala patterns; the latter is the indefinable fusion of magic with reality. Painting in the dim light late at night, 18 hours after I got up, the end of my work week, I see images I did not plan, I wonder if others will perceive as I do, I change the light, other forms emerge layered in the presence of dimensions that reveal themselves, seemingly beyond my control. Paint the medium. I appreciate the infinity of definition, the beauteous liberty, the great path Art has provided since earliest times. Art is the unifier, a current that can never be extinguished.

Bio:

Andrew McIntyre was educated in England, Scotland, Japan, and the USA, gaining master’s degrees in Economics and Comparative Literature. He lives in San Francisco. After a career teaching, he switched to retail to dedicate more time to writing and Art. His painting is inspired by the patterns of Nature, their connection with human iconography. He works mainly with colored pencils, oil pastels, and acrylic paint. His present focus is painting acrylic onto driftwood he finds at the beach, using the wood’s lines and contours. His most recent fiction publication was in 3:AM Magazine.

foto Andrew McIntyre