This month dot-art speaks to artist Andrew Sherriff.
Andrew Sherriff attended Southport Art College, upon leaving he worked in the photography industry for over 40 years.
He received numerous national and international awards including Kodak Portrait Photographer of the Year.
Andrew over the last 7 years has embraced his true passion for painting and enjoys the challenge of creating work that is both original and difficult to replicate.
Evolution of Pattern Collection.
With this collection Andrew likes to work with abandonment, creating patterns from chaos developing and evolving the piece in a dynamic manner. He paints over previous patterns thus creating further depth to the composition. He encourages a certain amount of serendipity to his work and likes to produce a painting that the viewer will keep on discovering something new each time they see it.
How would you describe your style?
My style of art is not planned, it evolves. I don’t have an end in mind or if I do its very loose I find that by working this way I discover something I like and then I pursue it and hopefully create a collection that is worthy.
I want my paintings to act as a joyful window on someone’s wall.
Can you talk us through your process?
I tend to go straight in, I am quite fearless but this can create problems so I may end up in a battle with the work, but I think by working in a spontaneous way it creates an original style.
My work can take as little as 5 minutes or as long as 10 hours depending on my end goal. My life drawing sketches sometime are quick because the model can only hold certain pose for a short time. My average time on most work is 3 hours but this can be spread over days as I find it’s good to leave it, then go back afresh, it’s amazing what objectivity this gives you.
It’s well known that artists can spoil a painting by overworking so when is it finished? All I can do is let it go and hope it creates its own narrative to the viewer.
When did you begin your career in art?
Age 20 I left Art College and had a successful career in photography for 40 years winning numerous awards along the way. From Kodak portrait photographer of the year to winning gold awards in the World of Wedding and Portrait Photography America.
It is only in the last ten years I have returned to painting also spent 5 years sculpting but I have decided my passion is painting.
Why is art and creativity so important to you?
Not sure why being creative is important to me but I know when I am not making something from something raw, whether it’s cooking a meal, baking a cake or painting a picture I get a bit down. Even when I go out on my bike I take my camera with me, it seems to give the bike ride more purpose and maybe that is a metaphor for my life in general.
What are you working on at the moment?
I am working on long term project alongside my other work its titled Rubbish Art. I go round charity shops and skips looking for discarded paintings or prints. I then paint over them in my abstract style leaving some of the original showing through keeping them in the original frame I found them. I think the results quite interesting.
What was the best advice given to you as an artist?
The best advise was “don’t stop painting” by Max one of the tutors at Southport Art College paradoxically I did stop. But him saying that has somehow stayed with me.
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