In Town and Country, Andrew Marr presents us with a sequence of his recent paintings, arranged into broad categories: nudes, landscapes, conversations and still lifes. This is mostly conducted in a vibrant abstraction however there is representation here too and some of the more interesting ideas in this show can be found in an enthralling meeting of the two. The signal feature of the show is a profound exploration of colour and the possibilities of texture while Andrew’s evident relish for the ‘stuff’ of painting, the raw materials of his craft is another hugely enjoyable aspect.
Andrew has worked to create a visual platform for engaging with the world. These works result from walks in rural Scotland and his neighbourhood in London, robust conversations in pubs, quiet meditations on physicality. There is argument, laughter, beauty, sex. There is also art, or more accurately other artists. Andrew’s pantheon of influences from Henri Matisse, Gillian Ayres and Antony Gormley to Albert Irvin, David Hockney and Patrick Heron can all be found here and speak of decades of looking and learning.
The drive, passion and honesty of this show finds a welcome home at Eames Fine Art. These works are an attempt to share ideas, to start a conversation and they are made with wit, generosity, authenticity, and sincerity.
We have also created a beautiful catalogue for the exhibition which can be viewed and purchased HERE
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ANDREW MARR IN CONVERSATION WITH VINCENT EAMES
Andew Marr joined Vincent Eames in the Gallery for a live streamed discussion about his exhibition.
Together they discussed Andrew's influences and his motivations, how he chooses his subject matter and about how he considers making art to be his real passion in life.
CLICK HERE to watch a recording of this insightul and entertaining conversation.
Please note - due to live technical issues, sound levels are occasionally compromised.
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Landscapes: The Assynt Pictures
"The earliest pictures in this show date back to a walking holiday in Northwest Scotland in August 2019, before coronavirus. Wester Ross and Sutherland comprise my idea of heaven and in the latter county the extraordinary landscape, with its bulbous eruptions of mountains, called Assynt, moves me most. If you wander around with an unfocused vague gaze, there is remarkably little colour – mostly a kind of khaki dun, with various shades of slate grey. But if you look closely, particularly if you stare downwards, a throbbing, scintillating kaleidoscope of colours are all around. I wanted to paint that, and the emotional effect of these extraordinary places. I found the circular motifs, violently slashed with coloured lines, a useful painterly simile."
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Mental Landscapes
"Back in my studio in Primrose Hill, London, I felt the urge to further abstraction of landscape paintings, reflecting woodland walks, and both the menace and exhilaration of some of the big outdoor places I had been. To me, the most interesting painting often takes place where representation, and abstraction, which comes from the material of the paint, meet."
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Flower Paintings
"I felt that the circular motifs I had dreamt up at Assynt, could do more for me and I started to experiment going to see how much variety of mood, emotion and tone could be held in such a relatively simple form. Most of these pictures are almost entirely abstract but what they are trying to show is colour in fragments, ripples and throbs, as it appears, for instance, in flowers as they blow about. But you could equally well call them butterfly paintings, or frankly, anything you like."
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Conversations
"Back in London, I wanted to make some urban pictures to go alongside the landscapes – more social, garrulous, chatty pictures. I had six offcuts of wood which seemed appropriate in shape and made these. They are all very different – the first one refers to a memory of conversation in my favourite pub, the Albert in Princess Street NW1. Others are about arguments, a terrorist attack which was in the news of the time, and the cheerful, cartoonish sexuality of the modern city."
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Townscapes
"One danger in painting – there are hundreds, potentially, of them – is being too clever by half. I found a simple but almost inexhaustible subject in Chalcot Square, close to where I live. Its houses are painted in clashing, sometimes almost garish, colours. They enclose a variety of trees, providing exciting verticals, and the little green park where children play and adults conspire. In short, almost all human life is there and I began a series of pictures, semi-abstract, to reflect the city of villages at its best. They are intended to be pretty simple, easy and cheerful… nothing hard here at all."
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Andrew MarrChalcot Square at Midsummer, 2020Sold -
Andrew Marr, Chalcot Square in Winter, 2021
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Andrew MarrChalcot Square: Autumn Playing, 2021Sold
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Andrew Marr, Chalcot Square: Games at Night, 2021
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Andrew MarrChalcot Square at Midnight, 2020£2,400.00
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Andrew Marr, Chalcot Square: Autumnal, 2020
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Andrew MarrChalcot Square: The Escaping Child, 2021£3,000.00
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Andrew MarrThe Unlocking, 2020£3,000.00
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Andrew MarrGardening in Winter (For Jane), 2021£3,500.00
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Andrew MarrClassical Landscape, 2021£3,500.00
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Drawings
"I draw every day, as a matter of principle. The modern coloured pencils easily available are of a gloriously high quality, and allow a spontaneity I find endlessly testing and refreshing. Sometimes, the drawings then spill over into paintings but I regard them as works entirely in their own right. Collectively, they form a kind of mental diary– High points and low points, memories and enthusiasms."
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Nudes and Allegorical Figures
"So, after landscapes, townscapes and flower paintings, the obvious thing left was the human body. I was much influenced by talking to Anthony Gormley, who has expressed his queasiness about the male gaze, pinning down, as it were, a traditional studio nude. I have tried to make some pictures more about how it feels to be inside a body – the hot and cold passing over it, it’s subterranean life – using deliberately crusted, violent brushstrokes. Because these could be anybody’s bodies, and because I am a traditional soul, I have given them anonymously classical titles."
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Nudes and Allegorical Figures
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At a Glance in the Gallery: Andrew Marr | Town and Country
