Studio Visit with Andrew Faulkner

Andrew Faulkner

Artist

We got to catch up with Artist and client Andrew Faulkner. We visited Andrew in his studio in the ICB Building in Sausalito to talk about his practice in depth.

Please introduce yourself, where you are from, what your background is, when you started making art etc..

I was fortunate to be born into a family of artists, designers, and architects. I believe that my paintings fuse the structural sensibilities of my architect father and the often riotous color sense of my interior designer mother. I studied painting at Trinity College with colorist George Chapman who was a student of Joseph Albers and learned the art of defining space with color and value. After 30 years of success in the graphic design field, I decided to get a real job and become a painter.

Many of my landscapes use what I call an “invented color space” where color is used to break up the composition and achieve a sense of depth and atmosphere that can be open to the interpretation of the viewer.

Your studio is located in the ICB building, do you want to talk about the community of artists that work there? Do you ever collaborate on unique projects?

I like to tell people that I literally moved my art practice from my kitchen table to the ICB. A catalyst for this change was taking a workshop from artist, Nick Wilton. Nick teaches, has a thriving art practice on the third floor of the ICB and is also a great guy who inspires many artists in the building.

The ICB, which we like to think is the “Tribeca of Sausalito” includes artists of all kinds including painters, sculptors, fabric artists, photographers, multimedia producers, sound studios and much more. One unique aspect of this art community is that we all get along :-). There is no sense of competition and if anything we are all promoting each other’s work.

You have stated that you are primarily an artist working with landscapes, and there’s definitely a sense of place in your work, can you talk about what inspires your paintings?

My primary focus is on abstract landscapes and architectural interiors, and my art is inspired by the vibrant colors of my Northern California surroundings (specifically Marin). If painting were religion I would be praying to the saints: Matisse, Diebenkorn and Hockney.

You mentioned an invented colorspace, could you please elaborate on what that means to you? Would you say that working in both physical and digital painting influences the interdisciplinary nature of your work?

Although I’m a fan of “plein air” landscape painting, much of my creativity and composition happens in the studio or on the computer. If you look at my web site there is a whole section of limited edition prints. These are all “digital paintings” created on a Mac using ArtRage software and a Wacom tablet (stylus) I’ve peen selling these prints steadily for 15 years and now they are becoming “sketches for larger original oil paintings.

Where does LightSource fit into your process?

LightSource has been a great partner in making high quality archival prints on Torchon paper. People who buy my work expect “museum quality” editions and LightSource can really deliver. More recently, I have worked with LightSource on large digital paintings printed on canvas and stretched and framed. Because the color is so rich and I do some hand-painted embellishments, this is opening a new door for people who like a particular digital painting but would like it to have the presence of a large original piece. I’m hoping to work with interior designers on some of these pieces, because of course, it allows them to choose scale and proportions with multiple design options. I look forward to continued work with LightSource!

andrew-faulkner.com

IG: @andrew_faulkner_art

ICB Building

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Andrew Faulkner