Long before we saw his work on Sky Arts, Andrew Barrowman had built a respected profile in British art. As an accomplished landscape artist working in a variety of mediums, he had already won the 2021 Bowyer Drawing Prize at The New English Art Club annual exhibition, and published his first book, Views from the Studio Window, comprised of 120 oil sketches looking out from his studio over the course of a year. In 2023 he was elected as an associate member of the Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, and as a full member of the Pastel Society. In early 2024 he won the Artist Magazine Award at the Pastel Society’s 125th exhibition for his charcoal and soft pastel drawings, and then made his first television appearance for Sky Arts at Stonehaven Harbour, Scotland.
‘Sky Arts Landscape Artist of the Year brought me some extra recognition’ says Andrew ‘and it was a great experience, something I could tick off my list, because everyone kept saying to me “you should do that!”’.
Of his awards he shares: ‘I think they help an artist to feel they belong in the art world. It is easy to suffer from imposter syndrome, to feel that you aren’t worthy of calling yourself an artist, so it helps your confidence to know that your peers like your work enough to reward you’.
Bedruthen Plein Air Here in Cornwall, Andrew is well known as a ‘plein air’ landscape artist and can be seen working outdoors in all weathers in spectacular locations, from North Cornwall’s Bedruthan Steps to West Cornwall’s Porthmeor Beach in St Ives. Andrew spends hours sketching the landscape as the light changes throughout the day, and as the scenery changes throughout the seasons.
‘I draw in the landscape most days, to help train my eye’ he explains. ‘My sketchbooks are very important to my practice.’
In a Cornish art scene dominated by abstraction, Andrew is a dedicated figurative painter. ‘I think there will always be a place for figurative art’ says Andrew. ‘People like to see variety in Cornish landscape painting, and there are still a lot of people who want to recognise the subject in a painting, rather than seeing an abstract representation of it. Even in figurative work though, I think it is important to convey something more than a photographic representation. I love to see brush marks and a certain amount of artistic interpretation in a painting. I always focus on trying to paint in a loose way, to concentrate on the feeling of being in the landscape, and on the atmosphere of the scene’.
Incoming tide at Porthmeor Andrew paints and draws in a variety of mediums, including pastel, charcoal, egg tempera and casein paint, but he works predominately in oil paint. ‘When I paint outdoors in oils, I begin by painting quickly with thinned paint, to get some energy and dynamic brushstrokes in,’ he explains. ‘Then I slow down to adjust the shapes and colours. The light changes quickly when you work outside, so you develop a rapid way of painting, to adapt to the changes. In that way, you can capture exactly what it is like to be there at that time.’
Back in the studio, Andrew uses those sketched impressions to inspire bigger, more detailed works of art.
‘When I work on larger pieces, I begin in that same energetic way, but I let the first layer dry for a few days before adding subsequent layers of paint. My studio paintings will have at least four layers of paint, each richer than the previous one.’
Andrew enjoys painting plein air He uses the same palette of roughly twelve colours for both his plein air and studio work, based on the classic ‘split primary palette’, which includes a warm and a cool version of each primary colour, and is designed to achieve the greatest possible vibrancy and colour harmony within each painting. His dramatic charcoal drawings are also mostly done in the studio. ‘They follow the same process of layering up and removing marks’, he says, ‘until I have something left that I like’.
Inspiring all this skill and dedication is Andrew’s thirty-year relationship with the county of Cornwall, where he lives and works at Krowji Studios in Redruth. ‘I love Cornwall for its varied landscape and many miles of coastline,’ says Andrew, ‘and for its strong sense of community. Where I live in Helston there is still a real sense of togetherness and tradition, and at Krowji we have a really great community of artists’.
Pentire Point from Polzeath beach Andrew’s immersion in Cornwall’s community extends not just to his home and studio, but also to his role as a tutor at St Ives School of Painting, and at Cornwall School of Art in Truro, as well as the twice monthly outdoor Sketching Club that he runs. Alongside all this, his focus remains on creating new landscape collections for show. This October, he presents his latest works at Whitewater Contemporary, Polzeath, with a Featured Artist exhibition of paintings and drawings inspired by the North Cornwall coast from St Ives to Polzeath.
‘I always hope that people will feel a connection to the Cornish landscape through my work. That it transports them to that exact place, even if they have never been there themselves. Often, when people see my work, they tell me they can hear the waves on the beach or feel the sun and the wind on their face as they look into the painting. That’s what I love most about being a landscape artist.’
See Andrew Barrowman’s Featured Artist exhibition until October 28 at Whitewater Contemporary, The Parade, Polzeath, PL27 6SR, and at whitewatercontemporary.co.uk
