About / Contact
Andrew Power 42, based in Santa Cruz, Ca.
andrewpoweroriginals@gmail.com (707) 391 8025
Welcome! Thank you for seeking out this slice of cyberspace. I hope you enjoy the gallery and find the site easy to use. I know there are many things to look at these days, and appreciate you spending time with me. Please come back soon and tell a friend.
I love to paint. I enjoy crating spaces for others to visually explore and find the process relaxing. If you see something that interests you please contact me. I would love to make a painting for you or sell you one I've already made. I'll sell you a print for what it costs me to have it made, but you deserve the real deal. If you are interested in an original but feel you can't afford it make me an offer, you never know, and I would surely come down on the price if you wanted more than one. If you need an Andrew Power image please call or e-mail, personal delivery is possible in California, and though I've never shipped I'm willing to try.
Commissions are awesome! If you have an idea that you would like me to work with I would love to hear about it. Send me some photos or just contact me and we will make it happen. 4' x 6' is the largest size I can transport but I'm willing to paint something larger if you can pick it up.
I also paint outdoor panels for the yard and garden. I have photos of a few at the bottom of the gallery page under "Outdoor Mini Murals." These are done in acrylic on 2' x 4' wood panels and are perfect for decorating any fence or wall. The panel images match up to their "partners" to make 2' x 8' pairs. Please scroll on down to the bottom of the gallery and check them out. I also paint signs. If you like the outdoor style and need a sign made I would love to mock up a few ideas for you and paint a sign. I've painted a few for different folks and have many font styles. Lets do this!
I am always looking for show opportunities from festivals and coffee shops to restaurants and galleries. If you have a public space in northern or central California looking to display artwork for sale please contact me. If you would like to see some work in person come visit my home and studio in Santa Cruz.
I am interested in mural opportunities as well. I have only painted one and I don't work for free, but I am confident that I could light up any wall, indoor or out.
Another reason that I started this website is that it provides a place to store a body of work. I've lost, sold, and given away many pieces without taking good photographs of them. If you have a painting I've done that you do not see pictured please e-mail me a photo and I'll try to add it to this collection.
On painting...her comes the blah blah blah... I have been painting for about 25 years and feel I do it for the same reasons now as I did when I began. Painting is fun, but it is also a way of giving something back and appreciating life. My favorite part of this great coincidence we call life is vision. I am so taken with the wonderous appearance of the Earth and the amount of space our little brains can analyze at once. Laying out space and building a landscape for other people to experience is a way of saying thank you that something similar was shown to us in life.
For me painting is a way to reference visual memories and explore spacial concepts, not an attempt to reproduce another image or to capture a scene while looking on it. It has been so long that this hobby has become a sort of study of the way I analyze and remember spaces. Thinking about creating a view changes the way you look at one. What makes this view so interesting? What will I remember and why? When painting am I just doing the same thing over and over again?
You inevitably learn things about yourself through repetitive practice and once you form a routine it takes a conscious effort to change. I find my imagined images seem simple and idealist, and realize it is because this is the way I am, or it is at least the way of my painting routine. So far I have not chosen to purposefully veer away from compositions that fit this description. I hide happily within my comfort zone using the same old perspective tools and symbols, but the more I paint the more interesting the combinations become. I realize that even with these crude techniques and naive played out themes of stereotypical natural beauty there are plenty of possibilities to keep me interested. I am doing the same thing over and over again, for some reason it feels right.
When I sketch I do so quickly. I scribble out shapes placing them in space trying to build an illusion of depth and interest. I attempt to reproduce inspiring visual memories and to create a space that slightly bends the rules of perspective in an exciting way. When color is added and agrees with the spacial illusion that has been suggested the job is done. Color is obviously a very powerful thing when it comes to how human minds analyze space and this is why painting is so enjoyable. When I decide an illusion of depth is acceptable, the overall color display interesting, and the image as a whole is in balance, I call it good and move on to another composition. To fidget and fuss over every square inch is not my style. I enjoy moving fast, staying loose and letting it happen. There is something stylish in loose brush strokes and it's amazing what the eye will accept. The mind wants to make sense of what it sees and eyes are incredible little muscles.
I love to paint. It makes me feel good. It makes me feel grounded, like I'm doing what I should be. At times after making a series of confident marks that hit just so, i'll even clap my hands, celebrate like a football player after a hard tackle or touchdown. Enjoy a endorphin releasing fist pump. Rare are moments when we find ourselves solely reacting to stimulus, as opposed to considering, planning, second guessing, and finally, acting. Usually these reactionary moments or activities are high speed ones, skiing or surfing for example. Painting is not high speed, but I find this reactionary sensation is sometimes present. Clearing the mind even for a moment feels great and sometimes warrants a healthy clap of the hands. Some people skydive, some meditate, I paint.
Please e mail or call with any questions or comments. Thank you for visiting this website.