Andrew Major

Andrew Major is a painter and ceramist who works from his garden studio in the Scottish Borders. Andrew was born and grew up in Bristol and trained in fine art and ceramics. In 2002 he moved to West Cornwall to pursue a full time career as an Artist and Ceramist, finally settling in the Scottish Borders in 2015

Taking inspiration from the surrounding landscape and using a mixed media palette he produces paintings which have a reflective and atmospheric quality, a juxtaposition between reality and imagination.

Where do my ideas for a painting come from? Mainly observations from journeying, images seen through a car or train window or from walking and cycling.

The textural surfaces of the paintings are created through a careful build up and layering of a variety of media, this can be acrylic, acrylic inks, oils, gouache, balancing colour, form and composition. This technique is applied to various surfaces from canvas to gesso panels.

Andrews ceramics are hand built or sculptured in either stoneware or earthenware clays often incorporating other materials such as driftwood and metal. The development of ideas are first sketched out in a notebook, incorporating size, form and glazing colours. Decorated with oxides, engobes, underglazes and hand mixed glazes the work can take on a quirky and playful quality. Various hand building processes are applied to produce the ceramic work such as slab building, slip casting and manipulating forms thrown on a potters wheel. An electric kiln is used to fire the work, this produces an oxidising atmosphere which has an impact on the glaze colours which can vary with each separate firing, making each individual piece unique.