Local artist brings joy-pop to Bloomingales

By James Mullan

Andy Taylor is an artist who captures the beauty and essence of our area with a uniquely colourful flair. He has teamed up with Kirribilli’s Bloomingales to display his popular ‘joy pop’ style pieces that you simply must see.

Andy’s artistic journey is perhaps not your typical one. He started painting when he left school, originally dabbling mainly with acrylic paints. As a young artist, who didn’t attend art school, he cut his teeth selling pieces at Bondi markets and then with a commercial gallery in the city. Yet he put down brushes to study a law degree before living overseas in England.

Returning to his childhood suburb of Mosman in 2019, he found himself inspired by the beauty of the Australian landscape and began to paint once again.

Taylors’ work is influenced by other artists like Ken Done, Brett Whitely, Michael Muir.

“My purpose is very much to create joy and beauty,” Taylor said.

Although he started off as an impressionist painter, he eventually shifted into more realism.

“In the last few years I’ve really given myself permission to break the rules and really expand my palate. I’m still very much loyal to the place, in that I want the place to be recognisable. But I’m still playful in my motifs.”

His subjects include iconic landscapes from around Balmoral, Manly and Sydney Harbour with some seriously zesty colour palettes.

Interestingly, outdoor painting (planar) is something Andy admittedly doesn’t enjoy, instead preferring to paint out of his new studio at Middle Head. “I work from a combination of photos and memory. But there’s a lot of editing of photos and artistic licence.” These memories are particularly strong considering he grew up in Mosman. “I grew up fascinated about the island and those bridges (Rocky Point).” Which comes through in his work, with the motif of childhood strongly present.

When Bloomingales opened, Taylor had heard about it on the grape vine. After visiting the Kirribilli lifestyle store he felt it was a good fit for him to sell his prints.

Founder of Bloomingales, Venietta Slama is delighted to have these works on display as his art has already been wildly popular in print form.

She told the Sun: “A lot of the locals loved his prints because it really celebrated the beauty of Balmoral and the North Shore.”

With a clear desire amongst patrons for more art, they decided it was about time they held an exhibition to display the larger pieces and display a wider range of works.

Slama particularly likes the fact that Andy has developed his own unique style.

“It is really colourful and to be honest with you I’m usually one for more monochromatic styles. So I’m really surprised he’s taken me out of my typical attraction to art because I really see the energy, the joy and it evokes happiness in people.”

Taylor’s unique art will be on display and available for purchase at Bloomingales in Kirribilli for the next month, so go immerse yourself in the rich colours and wonder of this North Shore artist’s works.