Visitors will have a last chance to see The Enveloping Canopy exhibition which continues at the Red House Museum in Christchurch until Sunday 24 April 2022.
The exhibition displays works by Andrew Halliday, the winner of the Red House Museum’s Open Exhibition 2021 Manager’s Choice award. It is the first time Andrew has exhibited at the Red House Museum and his first major solo show. Andrew had under a year to produce a collection of new artwork specifically for this exhibition.
Halliday's focus over the past year has been a wood at Dibden Purlieu, where he walks daily with his labradoodle, Bramble. A popular scenic spot for locals, these woods reveal the dynamic and often innovative lives of trees and their impact on the landscape. Painting mostly in acrylic and oil, Andrew has also experimented with collage and mixed media drawings to record this resilient, local environment.
As Andrew puts it, ‘The Enveloping Canopy captures the life, death and endurance of trees in the New Forest.’
Andrew studied at Bournville School of Art before graduating with a BA honours degree in painting from Wimbledon School of Art in 1991, later winning a placement as a resident artist at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. He has taken much inspiration from painters such as Edward Hopper, David Hockney and Giorgio Morandi and more recently the Pre Raphaelites, particularly John Ruskin's drawings. His work can be found in public and private collections in the UK, USA, Hong Kong, Japan and the Netherlands and he appeared as a heat finalist in the Sky Arts programme Landscape Artist of The Year in 2018 and 2019.
Andrew lives in Lymington and is a tutor to a small group of students and a qualified picture framer (Fine Art Trade Guild Certified Framer).
Andrew commented: ‘My exhibition, The Enveloping Canopy, draws upon observations I have made as an artist within a local wood that is very special to me. Henry David Thoreau once said, "Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads", a message that often comes to mind when sketching in this fabulous place. I love to draw trees, losing myself in the branches above and the infinite tangle of life below. Many artists have taken inspiration for what nature has to offer, and for me this has certainly been the case over the last year.’
For more information about The Enveloping Canopy and Red House Museum, please visit https://www.hampshireculture.org.uk/event/enveloping-canopy-0.