Artist Feature: Andre Sutherland : Drifter

In Conversation with

ANDREW SUTHERLAND

Drifter - Salon91 03 April – 04 May 2019 www.salon91.co.za

Andrew Sutherland is inspired by wanderlust and the narratives that underlie human encounters with the natural world. His work relishes the delights of landscape in painted planes that combine graphic and illustrative elements with more traditionally painterly, expressive marks. His taste for adventure follows through with a long and explorative history of experimentation with different materials: watercolours, brush pens, acrylic paints, charcoal, ink, spray paint or collage on canvas, paper, wood, wall, and most recently oil paints and monotype prints.

We catch up with The Artist as he prepares for his fifth solo exhibition at Salon Ninety One.

‘Drifter’ will open on the 3rd of April and run until the 4th of May.

Natasha Norman: Has the inspiration for Drifter come from a specific experience of place, or the more general encounter with being in natural environments?

Andrew Sutherland: Drifter is about a character who doesn’t settle. He wonders and that wondering is partly within painted spaces of pure imagination. I mean, pristine, untouched natural spaces – if they do exist – are few and far between. In my paintings that idea of pure landscape is able to exist. So this character is moving without anchor through these ideas of spaces. Sometimes he comes across the residue of habitation: a shelter or a dwelling, but for the most part I have struggled to let go of the desire to imagine the uninhabited.

Lake Crossing, 2019, Mixed media on canvas,

600 x 800mm

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NN: Is travel a very important part of your identity?

AS: Yes. My work focuses on landscapes and I’ve found that you can look at all the photos in the world and you’ll never get the feeling of being outdoors. I think the word is ‘awe.’ When I get that feeling of awe I am unable to capture it in a photograph but I can translate something of that experience into a painting

NN: Where does your process for a painting start?

AS: Being in the natural world is a big part of my life. I love it and I think a lot of people do because we have an inherent connection with nature. Then I look for a visual reference. I’ll scour old books or the Internet, sometimes just for one image - an image that has a tone or an inexplicable ‘thing’ that I’m looking for. I just know that the image is right, I can’t explain it. Then I start painting.

NN: You use a variety of mediums, how would you describe your painting practice?

AS: I’ve always worked in acrylics but more recently I’ve started working in oil paint. It’s been really good working in oils. I was attracted

Above: ANDREW SUTHERLAND. Sauntering I, 2019. Oil on canvas. 400x300mm. Left: Campground, 2019, Mixed media on canvas, 700 x 900mm

Sauntering II, 2019. Mixed media on canvas. 900x800mm

to the lustre of them. It has something that acrylic doesn’t – the colour dries more vividly. I’ve had to use a different approach to painting in oils because there’s the drying time, but I like the different approach. I have also been making monotype prints for the first time. Every time I approach the monotype print it’s a process of rediscovery.

NN: Do the different mediums elicit very different results?

AS: With monotypes you can’t really see how it’s going to look until it’s printed. Oil is the most true in terms of applying colour to surface. Acrylic dries darker or lighter than it is painted. I use acrylic more because it is less toxic, there are no turpentine fumes. I’m

only working in oils on small canvases at the moment, but I like the results in all of them.

NN: Which are your favourite landscapes to paint?

AS: I tend to paint lush landscapes. Painting a desert or a snow scene is the most challenging. It requires a lot of effort to paint very little. I would like to take on that challenge in terms of an exploration of South African landscape for a future project.

Natasha Norman is an independent arts writer and artist working from her studio in Muizenberg, Cape Town.

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