Emerging Artists | Andrew Bolam - Southwest Art Magazine

Following his fancies

: Andrew Bolam, Persistence, acrylic, 52 x 62.

This story was featured in the October 2019 issue of Southwest Art magazine. Get the Southwest Art October 2019 print issue or digital download now–then subscribe to Southwest Art and never miss another story.

ANDREW BOLAM’S massive, eye-catching paintings of Native Americans and western wildlife are a far cry from the smaller, more detailed landscape paintings he created early in his fine-art career. Some of those earlier works, all done in oil, measured a mere 2 by 2 inches. “Now I barely paint under 40 by 40 inches—that’s a small painting for me,” says the artist. “I usually like to work 48 by 48 or larger.”

: Andrew Bolam, Unbroken, acrylic, 60 x 60.

: Andrew Bolam, Enduring, acrylic, 48 x 48.

: Andrew Bolam, Affinity, acrylic, 46 x 48.

From his studio in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, Bolam now paints almost exclusively in acrylics. He also works in series, which allows him to tackle continually fresh stylistic approaches around the Native American figures and wildlife subjects he has been dedicated to portraying for the past few decades. As he experiments with different mark-making techniques, textural effects, and color harmonies, his work has become increasingly abstract, notes Bolam. “I’m trying to put shapes and paint applications together that are purely abstract up close, but when you move away from the piece, visual cues like silhouettes become the image,” explains the artist, whose influences include famed experimental artists like Chuck Close and Gerhard Richter. “When Richter started putting paint on his canvas abstractly and scraping into it with a trowel, he was just being true to himself as an artist,” says Bolam. “That’s what I do—not what collectors expect me to do.”

: Andrew Bolam, Galileo, acrylic, 40 x 40.

: Andrew Bolam, Atticus, acrylic, 48 x 48.

: Andrew Bolam, Alces Alces, acrylic, 46 x 58.

As for his subject matter, the beauty and mystique of the American West and its native peoples first captured Bolam’s attention as a young boy growing up in England in the 1970s, when he’d soak up wildlife documentaries and cowboys-and-Indians shows on TV. After studying graphic design at Newcastle College of Art, his fascination with the West lured Bolam to California, where he worked as a freelance illustrator before transitioning to painting full time. Gradually, he traded his realistic landscapes for the “bolder, simpler statements” that characterize his work today. Adds Bolam, “Now I’m happy to allow a lot of negative space in my work and seemingly empty areas of canvas.”

Occasionally, the artist still paints landscapes, though they are mostly simple color fields these days, he says. He isn’t certain where his work is headed next, but Bolam is happy letting the mystery be. “I’m excited that I’ve given myself the luxury of growing organically and doing whatever tickles my fancy,” he says. “I paint for me.” —Kim Agricola

representation
Mountain Trails Galleries, Jackson, WY, Sedona, AZ, and Park City, UT; Valley Fine Art, Aspen, CO; Paderewski Fine Art, Beaver Creek, CO; The Bolam Gallery, Truckee, CA.