Andrea Wedell

Artist Statement

I’ve always sought out rich experience above all other life pursuits; the impulse to uncover these internalized moments, and to revisit them, stimulates my impulse to paint.

I improvise, and in a way I dance, laying down a foundation, and building on it, moving backwards and forwards. A background in theater and dance makes me particularly sensitive to rhythm, staging, and timing in my painting. I create drama. By juxtaposing layer after layer of a rich color and allowing it to shift as the light and mood changes (much like the fog in my native Bay Area), I enhance the theatricality of my work.

I use thin layers, opaque ones, scribbled pencil lines, bold strokes, soft ones, and value changes, often destroying the work, then starting over. I draw on a variety of painting techniques including brushed gestures, cold wax applied with brayers, and paint spread with just my hand. I study the work as it comes out the other side of all this, building on my changing sense of harmony, evolving my visual vocabulary, all in search of a deeper meaning that will connect me to something larger than myself.

Biography

Andrea is the daughter and grand-daughter of artists and architects. Growing up, she was surrounded by strong willed artists, and grew to hold beauty, balance and a commitment to art as the guiding forces in her own life. When her grandfather, Alexander Stoller sold half of his land in the Berkshire mountains to cast one of his largest marble sculptures in bronze, it was acquired by the American Embassy in Paris. Andrea attended the opening ceremony, and shortly after, captivated by the magnitude of culture available in Europe, uprooted from her native California and moved to Paris. The France adventure spanned 28 years before she moved back to her much loved California in 2013. Andrea has a bachelors from UCLA, and while in Paris, she studied under acclaimed Beaux Art teachers Michele Massiou and Jacqueline Guillermain for over 10 years. She began exhibiting regularly at the Grand Marche d’Art Contemporain in Paris, before becoming a permanent artist with Galerie BE Espace also in Paris for 10 years. Her work has been published by Les Editions Arcadia in France. In California, she was a featured artist at Toadfish Contemporary Gallery in Sausalito, has shown with Desta Gallery in San Anselmo and Mill-Valley, with Gray Loft Gallery in Oakland and was an artist with SFMoma Artist’s gallery in San Francisco. Inspired by movement, rhythm, color and mood, her style is improvisational, moving through joyful chaos to studied balance. The subject matter that emerges through that back and forth process are the pivotal moments that have shaped her life experience.

Art Medium(s)

Oil Paint, Acrylic Paint