Andrew Strange: oil on canvas
Main Gallery
Andrew Strange seeks to capture a child’s simplicity and freshness of vision, as in those moments when we glimpse the world once more as if for the first time, uncluttered by concepts and symbols.
He says: "My paintings can best be described as ‘naive’ both in style and also in the fact that I am self-taught. Painting, however, has always been the central core of my life. Within the paintings I have attempted to capture a child’s simplicity and freshness of vision, as in those moments when we glimpse the world once more as if for the first time, uncluttered by concepts and symbols. Hopefully though, the paintings speak for themselves."
Robin Hood was a boyhood hero. Fascinated by history, he painted his series of large oils depicting scenes from the life of the Sherwood Forest legend between 1981 and 1984 for a book he was writing. Each took around six weeks to complete and, despite their size, are models of the illustrator’s art.
With a background in farming, gardening and tree surgery, the self-taught Strange, 58, was born in Gloucestershire but has lived in Ashwell since 1983.
Earlier paintings and more recent work all appear to show the influence of such surrealists as Magritte and the symbolist De Chirico, but Strange denies any such influence.
‘My inspiration has always been from feelings and images that come from within me and the vision I’m trying to communicate is that of a child who sees the world as from an open window instead of through glass that has layers upon layer of conceptual grime obscuring the simplicity and purity of creation,” he says. For this reason I have consciously avoided being influenced too strongly by anyone. The art of seeing is, I believe, less a process of learning and more one of un-learning.”
Strange has had previous exhibitions in Digswell and Ashwell, and one of his paintings, The Boat, was bought by the comedienne Ruby Wax. But he is unlikely to offer any of the Robin Hood paintings for sale. “They are so personal,” he says, “that I feel a bit reluctant to let them go at present.” Digital prints made from them can, however, be bought at the exhibition.
With less time nowadays to devote to his art, he finds that nowadays a painting can take as long as a year to complete and is also likely to be larger. Two more illustrated books are in the pipeline: one on Joan of Arc and another on Bonnie Prince Charlie.
He always wants, he says, to paint the image that is “freshest”.
“So in some ways I have no idea what will be my next painting.”
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Andrew Strange 
