Thomas Moran (1837-1926) emigrated to the United States from Bolton, England, when he was 7 years old. He discovered the American West in 1871 on a trip to Yellowstone. It inspired him so much that he decided to devote his life to depicting the West.
Andrew Bolam was born nearly 125 years later and about 150 miles from Bolton in Newcastle Upon Tyne. Times had changed. Bolam recalls, “I grew up watching cowboy and Indian movies and TV shows and wildlife documentaries. Nothing is more exotic and captures the imagination of children around the world quite so much as the recent history of the American West. As a boy I was enthralled.”
Revealed, acrylic, 58 x 48"
He studied graphic design in England and moved to Southern California where he worked as a freelance illustrator. He now lives north of Lake Tahoe, California, where he paints the West. He says, “I blend my personal history and interests with a deep love for the American West and a profound respect for its culture and people onto canvas.”
He not only paints what we see but how we see. “The underlying thought process that unifies the various series that I work on,” he says, “is my interest in visual cognition—how we see the world around us and how we translate abstract shapes into recognizable images. I very much enjoy making large shapes and marks coalesce into something else so that the viewer can immediately understand what it is that they are looking at, but also offering the careful observer a opportunity to question what they are looking at. A painting is, after all, just a collection of paint marks arranged onto a canvas at the direction of the artist, much like a digital photo is just collection of pixels that when arranged can become a representation of anything.”
Sage, acrylic, 16 x 16"
His paintings in his one-artist exhibition at Mountain Trails Gallery in Park City, Utah, March 4 through 9, are large-scale profiles of Native Americans, silhouetted wildlife and animals in abstracted settings.
Prodigy, acrylic, 58 x 58"
He explains, “The new series of paintings, about quite representationally painted animals wandering through very abstract suggestions of an aspen grove, is a theme/idea that I have played around the edges of for a long time. However, with age and confidence I feel like I have finally found the way to express exactly what I am thinking. I am hoping to continue to push the boundary between abstraction and representation while nodding to my love for traditional art and my appreciation for art that is perhaps more relevant and fresh.
Always, acrylic, 72 x 54"
I content myself to follow my own path, chase my own muse and paint exclusively to please myself—regardless of the success or failures of my efforts,I will continue to say something that is true and in my own voice.”
Upcoming Show
Up to 15 works
March 4-9, 2021
Mountain Trails Gallery
301 Main Street
Park City, UT 84060
(435) 615-8748
www.mountaintrailsgalleries.com
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