Andy Rodmell

Drawing came first in my life. I felt I wanted to document images that I enjoyed looking at. Pulling a pencil or piece of charcoal to match a shape, to form a curve. When you get that right, the pencil becomes an extension of the hand, arm and body, it feels great. If you have ever hit a golf ball cleanly, trimmed on a wave, or prepared a meal with intention, you will know exactly what I mean. The name given to this is the ‘flow state’. Not thinking, moving on instinct, a kind of meditative focus we see in animals in the wild, where time passes unnoticed.

Then came colour, in the form of oil paints and the challenge of placing that paint in a way that appeals to the eye. A strong influence came from the artist Robert Lenkiewicz, a flamboyant figure from Plymouth in the UK where I am from. I consider him to be a modern Rembrandt; his work is intriguing and meaningful. Lenkiewicz described his painting technique, distilled pragmatically into three basic principles and I quote directly from him: “The shape of the shape. The colour of the colour. The tone of the tone.” Sometimes the answers come in the simplest of forms.