Andrea England

I’m a little bit obsessed by the ocean. Running away to sea aboard a sailboat studio, I create vibrant, joyful watercolours inspired by the motion and moods of the living seas. I use layers of translucent paint to fill my work with light and a sense of peering beneath the waves, with swirling lines that recreate the ever-shifting vitality of the coast. Each painting invites the viewer to recapture the exhilaration and tranquility of time spent by the water, with a hint of salt and sea foam.

A river or lake will do in a pinch, but nothing quite tops the ever-changing moods and colours of the sea. There’s a magic in the shifting shorelines, the breaking waves and the miniature worlds of the rock pools. Watercolour paints share some of those qualities. Capricious and sometimes unpredictable, they flow across the paper in a wash of glorious colour. Painting with them is almost as hypnotic as watching the ocean.

My muses are orcas, cedars, arbutus trees and humpback whales, current-swept coastlines and rolling waves. Each painting shares the movement, tranquility and energy of life by and on the sea, so you can always have a bit of the ocean with you.