A resident of Buena Vista since 1984, Stuart Codington Andrews made Central Colorado his home due to the quality of light and rich diversity of the landscape. Since arriving here, he has built an artist’s life based upon his reverence for the beauty of the natural world, his fascination with the peculiar interactions of humanity, and affection for the surreal moments created when the two meet.
Andrews invests his time in recording the impact of the changes that are shaping the New West. A self-educated painter, his works collect dreams, the collisions between pop culture, manifest destiny, alpine life and his own desperate romance with the mountains, all cleverly fused in oil paint.
Using untempered masonite prepared with an acrylic gesso or imported linen with traditional hide glue/oil priming, he works with the finest quality pigments and mediums to ensure a durable and lasting work. With a quiver of both traditional and unexpected tools, his technique draws from the span of art history to achieve the effects and impacts needed to bring his views to life.
Long an admirer of Magritte, Sargent, O’Keefe, Bierstadt, Russell, Dali and Parrish, he has spent the past 30 years honing his skills to reflect and build upon the legacy of their efforts. Choosing to focus on the mountains as a backdrop for his creativity as well as his home, he merges the scenery with the surreal in his efforts to enlighten as well as entertain. Stuart is an active board member with the Chaffee County Arts Council. Owner of the View Gallery for 12 years until 2004, he is currently employing many avenues for showing his work, most notably through the internet, commissions and regional shows. Balancing the selling of originals and reproductions with the commissioned projects, he is using this opportunity to reach a wider audience and tap into new ideas and themes for the coming years. Turning out an average of 50 oils a year for the last three decades, his work is in corporate and private collections across the U.S. and on every continent except Antarctica.
“Seeing is believing. I am an oil painter with deep beliefs in the narrative potential of art and the power of dreams. My work is a fusion of memories, mythology, pop culture and a life in the Colorado high country. Whether a single thought or an epic concept, each painting has the chance to create questions and wonder in the viewer. In my efforts to render imagery both fantastic and humorous, I stand on the foundation provided by the realism of the great Western painters. Using tools ranging from traditional brushes to the computer, I now explore the collisions of ideas and events, creating a timeless window to each story.”