About the Artist

Andy Heald

I paint seascapes or landscapes inspired by moments in East Lothian, but you’d struggle to recognise landmarks or gain a geographical hook. I’m not attempting to create an accurate representation of a beach or a hill, instead I try to capture that fleeting emotion you or I felt when walking the landscape. Happiness. Sadness. Coldness. Warmness. Walking with friends. Walking alone to get away from life. I attempt to capture these emotions by creating large sketches: painting rapidly; sanding away, drawing over with pencils, splattering paint. I scrawl personal notes as a diary of what was being thought or listened to; the jumbled words, stolen lyrics, forming the titles of the work. No one forgets how they felt in a particular moment, in a particular landscape. Spilling our guts on a canvas.

I capture the images across East Lothian (Gullane, Yellowcraigs, Longniddry, Aberlady, Belhaven, North Berwick) with sketchbooks and photos.

Sometimes I paint outside but usually I work on the large sketches in the studio.

I regularly exhibit in galleries across Scotland, primarily in and around Edinburgh, East Lothian and the Scottish Borders. My work is held in private and corporate collections across the UK.