Andy Buchanan - Artist Profile

Andy Buchanan is an amateur artist living in Christchurch. He is a semi-retired structural engineer, previously Professor of Civil Engineering at the University of Canterbury, now working with PTL Structural & Fire.

He has been an intermittent amateur artist for over 20 years, using palette-applied oil paints to create images of New Zealand mountain scenery, using mountainous locations where he has tramped, climbed, or skied. The paintings are done in his studio, roughly based on photographs taken in the mountains.

Andy says, “My goal is to re-create a feeling of being in the mountains, using the simplest forms possible. Every painting is the result of finding a balance between two extremes of too much simplicity or too much detail, neither of which is satisfactory. My focus is on the mountain landscape, so I give little attention to the sky, and there is no human content. My recurring themes are straight lines, geometric shapes, and simple colours.”

Andy is a self-taught artist, although he has taken occasional lessons, some from Nicky Dobson at Passion for Painting, from Jane Zusters at the 2013 New Zealand Alpine Club painting week at Mt Cook, and more recently from Wayne Seyb in Christchurch.

Andy frequently seeks recreation in the mountains, looking for new subject matter for future paintings. A related goal has been to climb all the Southern Alps and foothill peaks visible from Cashmere, many of which have provided images for these paintings.