Andrew McIntosh is a Scottish artist originally from the Highlands and currently based in London. His paintings often look to the Scottish landscape, capturing its drama in the Romantic tradition of painters such as Thomas Cole and Albert Bierstadt. Within these scenes Andrew adds elements of magical realism to plunder the imaginative potential of the wilderness. Unexplained celestial phenomena and electrical manifestations appear in deserted glens. Caravans are a recurring motif, along with dilapidated buildings and structures, often with one wall removed to reveal an incongruous other world within. What results are contemporary gothic landscapes as a form of Scottish noir.
‘The Calling’ is a collection of new paintings combining these ongoing threads in Andrew’s work. Caravans stand alone on the deserted strands of isolated Hebridean islands. The caravan epitomises the independent spirit capable of enduring the most inhospitable of environments. Within them is a private space, host to an interior world full of meaning and personal symbolism. Sunset and sunrise appear like ancient pagan deities, natural phenomena imbued with meaning through mythologies. A glowing orb sits on a pedestal before a map of the wanderings of Odysseus, a magical journey into the unknown. More orbs of light floating in the Highlands further this theme of belief in the supernatural, and how the wilderness worldwide, such as the mountain faces of Everest and K2, has the power to act as host for the inexplicable and the mysterious. This projection of meaning onto wild spaces speaks of something timeless in our relationship with nature. A need to engage with something greater, something beyond our physical substance.
‘The Calling’ will take place at the Saatchi Gallery as part of the British Art Fair / SOLO Contemporary. We will be on stand SOLO 9 on the second floor.
