Andrea Sullivan, Bach Fine Arts, National Art School, graduating in 2000. I have lived in Fontainebleau, London, Toronto and New York and recently moved to the Northern Beaches, Sydney.
My work is born from the unconscious mind. I have a deep love and fascination for natural world and its constant state of flux. I explore movement, rhythm and energy through the interplay of colour and shape.
Over the year I spent living in Fontainebleau I took daily walks through the ever changing forest. I started working in watercolour with fragile translucent handmade papers. As the watercolour enters the paper it moves and shifts, changing its shape and at times it completely falls apart. Each work is comprised of over 100 sheets of pillowing papers with colours oozing from all sides. Opposing this was my time living in NYC where I started working in oil on a series of small clay boards in asymmetrical hard edged forms. The pace and haste of my life coupled with the energy and mapping of the city’s vibrancy informed my work.
In Sydney over the past 8 years the work became more labour and time intensive. Drawing, cutting and individually painting at times 1000’s of shapes for a single work allowed me to slow down and be present in the moment. The meticulous process brings you to the cycle of your breath. Each shape has its own character and represents its own moment in time and collectively they measure a period of time. The work finds its structure, rhythm and voice through the repetition and unfolding of the process.
My energetic and vibrant works present as assembled testaments to my travels and the time laboured intensity and beauty to the myriad of experiences I have had.
The works are held in private collections the world over and I have shown in NYC, Connecticut and Australia.