The Paintings

Andrew began painting professionally in 1992. Inspired by the abstract impressionism of Jackson Pollock, the “soak-stain” technique invented by American painter, Helen Frankenthaler and the textures and vibrant colours of Vincent Van Gogh, he experimented with abstraction and some collage, and fell in love with the versatility of acrylics. Shaping them with knives and spattering them into highly textured foregrounds, while watering them down to stain wet-on-wet, raw canvas to produce complex abstract backgrounds, he developed his own highly recognizable painterly style – often he also used what he calls a “reverse-gesso technique” – raw canvas is stained with acrylic paint of various consistencies and then, while still wet, much of the surface is coated with gesso, then manipulated into a complex blend of textured and stained colour, using large brushes, knives and water. He called the loosely painted forms in the gardens and landscapes that emerged from this experimentation “Eco-scapes”. The highly expressionistic flowers and trees give the viewer a “handle” to begin from, with the imagery drawing them into the very intricate blending of colours and textures of both the foreground and background. “I try to create a universality and familiarity for the viewer with the vivid colours, textures and movement in my work. Some see ‘naturally occurring’ birds, butterflies and other imagery in the backgrounds as they explore a painting – but these only occur by chance – the interpretations of an individual work are endless. I find it interesting when three different people find the same piece of work a reminder of the marsh they used to live near, western American plains they grew up on, or perhaps an exploratory jungle walk they took while on holiday on a Caribbean island. That makes for a successful painting!” he says.

Below are a variety of Andrew’s paintings currently for sale. Please email info@AndrewOlscher.com to make inquires. Click on any of the images to see a larger version of the work.