Andrew Fitchett
I take time at the beginning of each course to find out what each person wishes to achieve, improve or explore. This means that our group exercises such as still life drawing or painting have a very personal focus. I like to create a relaxed atmosphere where you will feel comfortable to experiment and push your own creative boundaries. I offer regular individual reviews and find occasional group reviews inspiring for everyone.
What will students gain if they come on one of your courses?I believe it is essential to provide you with technical and planning knowledge as well as plenty of hands on exercises in creative expression. You will learn where to start, how to explore options and make choices about materials, composition, scale, colour and technique to create deliberate effects in your work. The focus of my courses this year is to impart to you the key elements of observational drawing and narrative painting through the development of your own drawings and paintings.
Are there any particular techniques/processes you use in your teaching?Learning through doing.
What inspires your own work?The everyday and odd moments of stillness, atmospheric situations and landscapes, a quiet intensity, dark corners, rainy days, telegraph poles, bleak landscapes, dramatic clouds, rooks, crows, ravens and the overlooked.
Where can students see examples of your work?Londonart
brightonillustratorsgroup
Where did you gain your training? Experience?
I studies Art and Design at Salisbury College of Art, finding my first job designing exhibition stands and their graphics. I then worked in the music industry designing, illustrating and art directing record, CD and video covers. I later worked in the Advertising industry as an art director then worked as the creative director for a new media company. For the past seven years I have dedicated my time to my own painting.
Teaching experience:During my advertising years I ran creative workshops for creative departments in a group of European advertising agencies. I have also run my own adult group and one-to-one drawing and painting classes in Lewes and London and regularly run Art projects at my children’s junior school.
Is your work in any public or private collections?My paintings are in private collections in the UK, Norway, Germany, Belgium and Canada..
Books and articles:I have had tutorial articles published in The Artist magazine and am currently working on my second graphic novel
Professional groups and societies:I am a member of the Brighton Illustrators Group