Andy Gale’s current project is inspired by my local Peak District environment as well as the Inner and Outer Hebrides. He investigates traces in the landscape made by humans, non-human species and natural phenomena over time. Gale’s practice is located in the contemporary expressionist paradigm, concerned with the layers and traces that constitute place. Also, he is currently exploring the archives of two collections: The Archive Britten Pears Arts, Aldeburgh, and Leicester Museum and Art Gallery’s German Expressionism Collection. His experimental work involves water-based media, graphite and ink, for mixed media painting, printmaking and drawing. Gale’s visual language draws on his own anxieties and doubts – expressing how he feels. Tracy Emin said, “The Expressionists in a certain way … thought with their stomachs…. It is about putting your heart on your sleeve”.

“My fine art practice is an integrated process of inspiration, experimentation, curation and reflection. Primary sources are acquired through walking in the landscape, making drawings en plein air.” says Gale about his work.

A performative aspect of his practice is the design, development and delivery of workshops. He learns through making and interacting with his audience. His art practice is a means of enquiry, discovery and learning. He responds through visual language to my environmental, social, political, emotional and psychological lived experience. “I find that I develop positive obsessions. The materials that I use speak to me. For example, the feel of Fabriano Pittura 400gsm paper reacting to my interventions and the seduction of birch plywood and its resistance to my gouge, in a material dialogue.”

Gale’s most recent exhibition presents small en plein air drawings, large drawings made in-situ in the gallery, mixed media artists’ books and a large relief print. These representational pieces all depict layers in the landscapes that he has responded to from memory.