Covid: States of Mind - Martin Andrews

Martin Andrews is a highly respected local artist who has played an important part in the Reading’s artistic community for 50 years.

During the Covid pandemic Andrews, who is usually an extremely busy designer, writer, lecturer and print historian, found himself with time to simply paint. The subject matter available to him also shrank.

Working in his attic, Andrews chose to paint in oils by candlelight and to focus with forensic intensity on his own face. 

The brown palette, the indeterminate space in the pictures and the exploration of facial expressions refer to the intense self-portraits of Northern Renaissance artists, notably Rembrandt.