Andy Waite

" I largely spend my time in the necessary chaos of an artist's studio; paintings are made, loved, hated, discarded, refashioned, and loved again. It's often difficult to ascertain what's going on but I don't tend to over analyse; the process is both impulsive and compulsive, it's a practice I am wholly committed to and it is a privilege to be able to create for a living.

I find myself increasingly less interested in specific geography and more so in letting whatever comes naturally just arrive and be present, without too much planning. I feel that if I knew in advance what I was going to end up with, there'd be little point, in other words it's the journey that makes the result worthwhile.

With my latest work, apart from trying to lose horizons to some degree, there are a several paintings influenced by the format of Japanese scroll paintings which I've always loved, it's just a very satisfying shape.

So while I have one foot loosely in the landscape, specifically the South Downs, I also wander around my mind, searching for an imaginary and abstracted world of colour, light, and joyous exuberance, a place that perhaps I'll never entirely find, but one that I'm yearning to visit. I'm inventing it in the way I know how, every time trying to make the ultimate painting, but simultaneously hoping never to achieve it for fear of having nowhere left to go; imperfection will do nicely. " Andy Waite January 2024