ANDREA KEMP BIO

When exactly my path in life became so certain, it is hard to tell.  I often find myself searching for that life altering moment that changed my life forever. The truth is, a collective of moments, experiences, and feelings changed my life.  I find my paintings have taken on similar evolution as well. 

My need to create has been a large part of my life for as long as I can remember.  Eventually I found mimicking shape and form two dimensionally was what I found most intriguing.  Like many artists I began looking at everyday life as if it could be a painting or drawing.  The more I painted the more I would see this way.  Oil painting is a seductive medium.  So when I was introduced to it I immediately fell in love with it.   I became my own teacher and then had the great fortune of finding other inspiring teachers.  During my four years of high school I studied with the artist Daniel Sprick.  It was a once in a life time opportunity that gave me the best foundation in classical painting and drawing an artist could possibly find, not to mention his hard working and disciplined nature also set a great example for me.  After graduating high school I went on to study at the Lyme Academy of Fine Arts for two years and then finished my degree at the University of Utah.  My time spent in school I was immersed in the world of classical realism.  Not only was I honing my skill as a painter but I was also learning about various representational painters, some who are still living and the ones who have left a lasting legacy in history.  All of these painters became my teachers as well.

Where and how do I begin my career as a painter?  At that time, I did what now is my life’s motto; when I am feeling stuck, I remind myself to just begin. Begin anywhere!
My one and only concern was to paint paint paint!  Somewhere between the beginning and the many paintings I had created, a voice emerged that was quiet but my own.  My work developed into the beauty I wanted to portray.   

The inspiration for my paintings come from all around me.  Sometimes it can be as simple as a color, other times it can be the way two people are interacting.  My work ranges.  I enjoy still life, portrait, landscape, and figure painting.  All of which I see as opportunities to express beautiful and interesting abstractions of life.  Whatever it might be, it is used as a building block for the piece.   Though my paintings would be categorized as representational realism, I like my work to maintain strong compositional principals and elements.   That is when creating an environment that will compliment, emphasize, or perhaps downplay my motive becomes so important in executing my vision.  When working through a painting I have experience and tools to use that I have acquired from my past work, but never is the path completely the same.  There are always unexpected obstacles that arise.  Those little and big bumps give me the opportunity to truly be creative.  To create the impossible and let the magic take hold.