Andrew Bird (b. 1969) is a contemporary British painter whose work explores the relationship between landscape, memory and abstraction. Based in Derbyshire and a frequent visitor to Cornwall, Bird draws on two very different environments - the rugged upland landscape of the Peak District and the coastline, harbours and coves of West Cornwall - translating his experience of place into richly layered paintings of colour, line and form.
Bird studied Graphic Design at Chesterfield College of Technology & Art before undertaking further studies in Design Communication at Sheffield and Fine Art at Bradford College of Art. His background in graphic design remains an important part of his visual language, giving his paintings a strong awareness of structure, balance and the simplification of complex visual information.
Before becoming a full-time artist, Bird worked as a graphic designer and garden designer. Since around 2010 he has concentrated on painting, developing a distinctive approach to landscape abstraction through which observed places are distilled rather than described.
Cornwall has become an especially important source of inspiration. Bird frequently studies the coast from a small boat, looking back towards the land from the water. From this changing viewpoint, familiar elements of the landscape become abstract structures: the geometry of fields, the sweep of the coastline, harbour walls, paths, hills and traces of former industrial activity. These observations provide the starting point for paintings that are ultimately constructed through memory, instinct and imagination.
His paintings are built slowly through a process of addition and reduction. Layers of acrylic paint are applied, then scraped, scratched and worked back, exposing fragments of earlier colours and marks. Further elements are added and removed until the balance between colour, line, shape and surface is resolved. The resulting paintings retain an identifiable relationship with landscape while resisting literal representation.
Bird has exhibited widely throughout the UK and has been represented by Porthminster Gallery in St Ives for many years, with solo exhibitions including Hills and Harbours, Favoured Paths, Landscape Abstracted and New Paintings. His work has also been shown in London at the 20/21 British and International Art Fairs and in exhibitions across England. His paintings are held in private and corporate collections in Britain and overseas.
Bird's work occupies an interesting position between representation and abstraction. The landscape is always present, but it is filtered through movement, memory and the physical process of making. Rather than recording a particular view, he seeks to capture the experience of being in a place - its rhythm, energy, structure and changing light - and to distil those impressions into a language of colour, gesture and form.