Special Remarks
Over the distant views of the glistening waters off the Maine coast, Joe Andrew is inspired to paint. Artists have been known to travel great distances to set up an easel in such surroundings. But when Joe Andrew is painting you will likely find him sitting beside a window overlooking the meadow, and leaning over whatever surface he happens to be working on at the moment. His surfaces are whatever comes to hand, cardboard, slate, scraps of wood, glass and recycled objects. As he dabs his brush into a mound of pigment he is not looking toward the enticing view out the window but at the patterns of color beginning to cover his canvas. Whatever he is painting--shoreline, sailboat, distant mountains, a field of flowers-- is based on visual experiences held in memory, or a synthesis of many memories, layered together. Instead of being a meticulous copy of a landscape, a Joe Andrew painting conveys the artist's emotional identification with his subject as the touches of paint from his brush become a field of flowers or the spray of waves breaking on a rock ledge.
Whatever the demands of his busy life, Andrew always has found time to paint. Attracted at an early age by the bright colored sharp pointed crayons he was given when he started school, he kept on drawing and painting without formal instruction. In Junior High School one of his paintings was awarded a second prize, enough encouragement to keep him turning out a stream of small vigorously painted views of mountains, sailboats, tidal inlets, birch, as well as vases overflowing with an abundance of lavishly painted flowers. Although memories of landscapes and seascapes are his most frequent subject, his enjoyment of color and his underlying sense of structure have caused him to also turn to abstraction. A good example of this is Coral Petals in which vibrant pink accents are like musical sounds interspersed in a network of calligraphic black lines. Sometimes a face will appear, almost as if by chance as he moves his brush spontaneously around his canvas.
Spontaneity is a key word when discussing Andrew's paintings. He seems to start off without a formula or preconception and to follow the lead of his brush, letting the components of an image fall into place until a grove of birch trees lines up along the shore or a sailboat glides over the waves. Sometimes his focus is on something close up like a tidal pool with silvery fish swirling under the surface or on something as distant as the rising moon. His skill at capturing the effects of changing light is especially evident as he shifts from season to season recreating the snow-covered branches and swollen icy streams of winter or a golden meadow at haying time. Although most of his works are modest in size, they expand as we look, bringing us in touch with a broad expanse of the natural world and reminding us of the glories of the planet earth that is our home.
Martica Sawin, May, 2018
A Note from the Family
Over the years, we have observed our father in the process of working on his paintings from their beginning brushstrokes to their completion. We feel fortunate to have lived with the sight of his creative images of beauty that have been painted "on any surface"; whether on canvas or wood, on slate and more.
We are grateful to have been "on the inside" of our wonderful father's works of art. We treasure and admire them, though, not possibly as much as we do him.
The Andrew Family
Words of Thanks
I wish to thank Martica Sawin for her contribution to this website. An individual with exceptional personal qualities and accomplishments, it is a pleasure to call her a friend.
I would also like to thank Lisa and Jan Paul von Wendt of Uni Comp Inc. for their superb work and expertise throughout the production of this website. Their own brand of art is combined with outstanding technical skills. From the beginning of this endeavor, it has been a pleasure to collaborate with them.
There is one other person whom I would like to thank: my daughter, Deborah. She is the one who thought of the whole idea of a website and who did all of the photography.
Joe Andrew
