Recently I had the good fortune of meeting with Andy Evansen, the internationally recognised master watercolour artist and teacher based in Minnesota, USA. Speaking with Andy was an absolute pleasure as he was so down to earth and easy to talk with. After chatting for a little while, Andy shared that he had recently, been “painting up a storm” in his home studio, with his other Studio located in Hastings Street, where he both teaches watercolour painting and has around 30 of his paintings hung at any one time. I was thrilled and impressed with Andy’s sponaneous offer to give me a virtual tour of his well designed basement studio. A good size studio, bursting with an array of his recent watercolour paintings waiting to be framed and or shipped to a happy new home. I loved the studio space, particularly Andy’s designated areas for his watercolour paintings; his skeleton and medical drawings; a special table and lighting for photographing his paintings as well as another area for preparing his matt boards and self- framing. To top it all off, it appeared from my Zooming in from Australia, that Andy also has a decent sized studio kitchen where he can get a coffee.
In this our first ever introductory meeting, we also spoke about Andy’s recent trip to Catalina Island, which is about a one hour high-speed ferry trip from Long Beach, California. Andy got to visit the Island before the Covid pandemic lockdown and managed to do what he loves most, to paint ‘plein air‘ for the upcoming annual exhibition being hosted at the Catalina Island Conservatory is the Sixth Annual Catalina: The Wild Side Art Show at Newport Harbor Yacht Club, featuring the works of 10 nationally recognized plein air artists who have interpreted Catalina Island’s wildlands, Avalon and Two Harbours. Sharing some of his recent paintings from his trip, I couldn’t help but be blown away, with Andy’s impression of the boats, water and beautiful sunlight mountains, a painting entitled ‘Early Departure from Avalon‘.
This particular painting in my humble view, is a must see for any aspiring watercolour artist interested in capturing the light and colour in a landscape watercolour painting. This led me, naturally to ask Andy, how he decides what and where he will paint and what inspired him to pick the spot to paint this fantastic picture.
I came away feeling inspired and super excited as Andy agreed that I could accompany him virtually on his next ‘plein air’ trip, with more exciting ‘behind the scenes‘ insights into painting with the marvelous medium of watercolour.
If you are interested in acquiring an original watercolour masterpiece or learning more about Andy and his paintings, I highly recommend checking out my short You Tube video. If you like the video I’d love you to Subscribe and click the Notification Bell symbol as well. That way you won’t miss out on updates about the upcoming AWS FREE ‘plein air‘ event with Andy.