Andrew Tischler

I primarily paint the Australian landscape. I have lived in Western Australia for most of my life and explored only a portion of our beautiful country. There is still much more to see and many places I would love to visit and paint. My work is the result of direct experience with the natural environment. I do not paint places I have not been to. I believe that it takes total immersion to convey a sense of time and place. After travelling extensively I realise how lucky I am to live in Australia. There is a raw and rugged beauty about the Australian landscape; even the light has a different quality. There is no shortage of subjects here.

The single most important element in my work is the definition of three-dimensional space within a two-dimensional medium. I strive to place the viewer in a new world, hopefully immersing them in the illusion of space I have set out to create. Some of my larger works have a strong vertical composition, void of foreground, pulling the viewer into an un-nerving situation, making them interact with the work on a more primal and emotional level. Other pieces have an entirely different quality, where the light, the geology, the flora and water play key roles in creating a calming and contemplative scene. Regardless of whether the painting is relaxing or tense, I want the viewer to feel part of the scene, to be caught up in a moment.

For me the process begins with inspiration drawn from my own experience. It's about being in the right place at the right time and feeling the flood of ideas when I am surrounded by nature. I enjoy getting into precarious situations and perhaps finding new perspectives to popular scenes that many may never see. The end result of the finished painting is a rare and fleeting glimpse of the natural world.

I paint the way I remember the landscape "looked" rather than how it shows up in a photograph. As you move through and experience a place, your brain is picking up and recording millions of pieces of information. I see different views depending on where I choose to focus. I never get bored going to the same place over and over, because the experience is always different and there is always something new to see. The scene changes moment to moment, depending on the position of the sun, cloud cover, and your direct position in relation to the subject.

The slightest change makes an entirely new composition. When I get back to the studio after an expedition I always feel a little underwhelmed by my reference photographs, because they don't hold true to my memory. I feel the need to recapture that initial inspirational spark... that "Ah Ha!" moment, when you know you have stumbled across something exceptional. Because my photographs can never be true to my direct experience, they are used merely as guides. I don't paint from one image directly; rather I use a multitude of images as reference. Frequently, when equipped with my sketchbook, I make drawings on location to capture the moment and distil it into a single composition. I often produce colour field studies with paint and portable easel. All this material is combined in the studio and used in the process to come up with the ideal composition. I adhere very closely to my own code and I have a framework under which I produce the paintings. Every painting goes through a design process to make sure the final piece works and conveys what I want it to say.

I draw my inspiration from the natural environment. I love exploring the passage of time and try to capture the spirit of the moment. Every piece explores a slightly different phenomenon. I enjoy the dynamic and the interplay between the different elements such as water against rock, or lush sunlit ferns contrasted against deeply shadowed trunks. I enjoy juxtapositions such as an old dead and rotting log fallen across a stream covered in new growth symbolising a continuity of life. I love the narrative formed in the painting. There is always something to explore, or some place to go. In most of my work, I explore the moment before something is going to happen, or the moment after, to further emphasise the element of time; such as flattened paperbarks in the bottom of a gorge, lying down after a storm surge had passed through the previous night, or the gathering of clouds on the horizon. I wish to communicate a sense of anticipation.

I feel a very strong and personal attachment to my paintings; in them I have explored a part of myself. I spend considerable time in front of each piece, building on my connection to the subject. I have my opportunity at this point to put across all the things I wish to convey. The viewer will read into the image all the preconceptions and ideologies they bring to the scene. I feel if I have done my part effectively, the viewer, will be moved, touched and inspired. This is what I strive for. My mission for every painting is to make the viewer feel. Personally, I feel an overwhelming sense of wonder and awe when I am immersed in the natural world. I am obsessively driven to recapture my experience. I can only hope the viewer will feel the same passion for the subject as I do.

The natural environment is our biggest asset. It deserves our admiration, respect and protection.