Andy Holyer Art for Sale at Auction

b. 1959 -

Andy is a real artist with a story to tell in most of his paintings. He was born and brought up in Romney Marsh and then went north to Yorkshire to pursue his art studies finishing with an MA in Fine Art from Leeds University. While he was in the north, he had many solo exhibitions and was particularly interested in paintings with social comment. He returned home to Romney Marsh at first to Littlestone, a fascinating small town, a relic of a failed Edwardian attempt to compete with Eastbourne with pleasure gardens and pier. He then moved to a keepers cottage in Dungeness and finally to Lydd, where he has lived ever since. For a while Andy was studio assistant to John Bratby. He must have been unusual in being able to work with Bratby as long as he did, Bratby being one of the most difficult of men. Bratby's art has influenced Andy a great deal. I first met Andy when I was walking round his exhibition at the Grand in Folkestone and could not believe Bratby was exhibiting there, but was it Bratby? Andy and I then had a good chat about Bratby and Van Gogh's influence on his art. Since then he has moved on to include an element of surrealism in his paintings. Andy is a true painter using his skills and considerable intelligence to paint as he wishes to paint without constant regard to the market place. He also has a passion for Romney Marsh and has contributed much to our knowledge of its legends and tales. He produced a book 'Life on Marsh' with Niko Miaoulis, Andy produced the illustrations and Niko most of the text.