About the Artist :: Andrew Anderson-Bell
Where I have chosen to live has kept me in daily contact with the great outdoors which is my leading source for artistic inspiration. Since birth, I have been a summer resident of North Haven Island, Maine. When not residing upon the island, I live in Ipswich, another seaside community located on the North shore of Massachusetts. Much of the subject matter of my pastels depict familiar landscape scenes from North Haven as well as those from my endless exploration of the islands of Penobscot Bay in Maine. Meanwhile, the wide open spaces of conservation land, beaches, horse pastures, farmland and salt marsh estuaries of Ipswich and neighboring towns has also captured my attention. Although many of my pastel landscapes are of recognizable locations, I am not concerned with generating an exact reproduction. Instead, I often work from memory and an intuitive process to create a heightened sense of place. Through my work I attempt to convey nature’s incantations: the whisper of wind through bows of spruce, the lapping of waves against a shoreline, the distant rumble of thunder. Often a strong sense of atmosphere is created by the way in which I treat my skies. Attempting to capture the feel and temperature of weather and nature’s change in mood, I often examine the metamorphosis of daylight to dusk or calm to the approaching rain storm. I examine the spectrum of nature from the graceful dance of field grass to the power and fury of surf. Most of my compositions are void of people, the only reminder of humanity betrayed by a small detail like a distant sail on the ocean horizon, a stone wall or a weathered fence post. I offer the viewer the indulgence of a meditative space to contemplate the grandeur of nature and reinforce the notion that even the most solitary and tranquil moments have significance.