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ARTISTS STATEMENT:

Since moving from London to Wales in 1983 my work has developed a strong commitment towards painting the landscape.

Living surrounded by the dramatic coastal and mountain areas of West Wales has had a profound influence on me. I am continually absorbing evidence of the power of nature - the inner strengths and energies of this restless planet. Initially resisting the urge to convey my feelings about this almost frightening power, about nature in the raw, my current work continually seeks to explore ways of expressing these emotions.

The underlying structures, energy flows, and spirit of the place together with interactions of light, season, and weather help to produce sensual images that refer directly to that which is felt, and are intent on recording imperfect reality rather than any ideal. In my work I explore my reactions both to places I have known and experienced over a period of time as well as to places merely glimpsed on journeys where I use initial impressions and gut reactions as a basis to work from.

Paintings begun in ink are further developed in acrylic, watercolour and pastel, both in blocks of opaque colour and transparent layers. Colour is of increasing importance in expressing reactions to, and feelings about the spirit of the place. There is a preference to working in series in order to fully explore ideas that need to be expressed, also to work from experience and memory as well as from life. Also, the continual practice of drawing is to me as vital as doing scales is for a pianist. To keep the eye fresh and sharply in tune is a constant challenge. The power and immediacy of drawing and mark-making are vitally important in the development of potent images.

It is the interplay of all these elements and the constant search to get under the skin of my subject, that never ceases to arouse in me a feeling of setting out on an exciting journey, the destination of which is largely undetermined.

"The 18th-century Welsh painter Richard Wilson painted Snowdonia in a sublime style that fuelled an international cult of mountain scenery. Subsequently, like mountaineers training in Snowdonia before attempting Everest, artists such as Turner painted Welsh peaks before tackling the Alps. Today artists make models of mountains in art galleries or show scary videos, but Clay paints the mountains as an almost abstract storm of colour in her West Wales landscapes." Jonathan Jones, The Guardian, 19.08.99.

"Clay eschews soft greens and agricultural detail in favour of a palette of vivid colour. Acid yellows, cerulean blues, rich pinks and purples are overlaid with vigorous graphic marks. Her works are concerned with the geology, the underlying structures of the landscape and the effects of light and dark. They also have a strong sensual quality - arising from the luxuriant colours and the way in which the drawing appears to create references between the structure of the landscape and the lines and folds of the female body.

Andie Clay is an artist to be taken seriously - her work is to be enjoyed and celebrated."

Sybil Crouch, Taliesin Arts Centre

"Andie Clay's paintings intuitively and metaphorically regard the dialectic of power and passivity in the mountain environment - the nature of its sentience and black temperament, as it seems to conspire with the elements to either warmly embrace man, or violently expel him: it throws down the challenge."

Shelley Hocknell, Rock Climber and Artist

"...her intensity of structure and her indomitable lines give even her very early work an individuality that can only be a Clay."

Sarah-Jane Jones, The Tivyside Advertiser

"Clay's paintings may be very free and dynamic, but they also show a subtle control, a combination that makes the paintings live."

John Fenna, Carmarthenshire Life magazine