Kinmont, Andrew

Biography

Andrew developed a deep appreciation of nature during a childhood spent walking and enjoying the wildness of the African landscape. Completing his schooling with awards in Art, he studied Fine Art at the University of Wales, graduating with a first class Honours degree in 2007. Whilst studying, he curated exhibitions and showed his work at local galleries and abroad. He obtained further training from St Martins College London and West Dean College, Chichester. 

Since then his work has met with critical acclaim and is collected both locally and abroad. He featured in the “Who’s Who in Art” (Movern Press), is an elected member of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, as well as the Manchester Academy of Fine Art. His work has appeared on the cover of various magazines and catalogues and is regularly selected for the Royal Institute of Oil Painters annual exhibition at the Mall Galleries, London. The spectacular and often wild landscapes of Cheshire and North Wales are a vital influence for his work and so he established his home and studio near Chester.

Statement

‘I have an overwhelming urge to create. This drive comes from deep within me, a need to explore and find something to say, to have my own individual voice. As humans we have evolved from nature and therefore have a deeply ingrained physical and spiritual connection with it.’

I create paintings as a response to my own experience of landscape. In these places of solitude I find tranquillity and a level of contentment that comes from being alone with your own thoughts, memories and dreams. I constantly experiment with a range of techniques to evoke the raw experience of nature. I like to go for a walks with my sketchbooks and camera and return to the studio to work from the images, memories and feelings.’

‘I alter things constantly in my paintings – I guess it’s like nature itself, in a continual state of change. I enjoy working on several paintings at the same time, constantly refining them or letting them rest as I decide what further work is needed. The resultant paintings are as much about my feelings and the atmosphere of a place as they are about how it looks. As a result they are not always ‘realistic’ and can be quite abstract. This is important as it allows viewers to bring their own interpretation and experience to the work.’

For more information visit www.andrewkinmont.com