Andrea Fourchy is a junior art studio major at UC Davis. Her work has been displayed in several group shows over the last few years – one being at John Natsoulas Gallery in Davis. This past summer she took part in an art-residency program for college juniors called Yale Norfolk. She was nominated by the UCD art department to apply and even received a fellowship to study in Connecticut. Aggie arts wrtier Paayal Zaveri sat down with Fourchy to talk about her artistic experience.
How did you get started with painting and drawing?
I took beginning drawing my [first] year at UC Davis. Each week, students were assigned a self-portrait as homework. I would regularly sit for eight hours drawing on my dorm room floor. I would come to class on the following Monday super enthusiastic, with my newest portrait, excited to learn how I could improve. The following two quarters I took Beginning Painting with Hearne Pardee and “Reinterpreting Landscape” with Gina Werfel. From my very first experiences with the UCD Art Department I felt engaged and challenged by my courses. Those three classes solidified my decision to move into the art studio major. I felt lucky to have access to such an excellent, vibrant art program.
What are the processes you use for your artwork?
The understanding that I am pursuing in painting is born out of a process that blends intuitive experimentation with careful observation. I am interested in complications of visual perception and the materiality of paint. In my paintings I think about shifts in scale and how scale can create drama as well as specific spatial relationships. I am interested in how different types of marks exist in the same painting and how that painting functions pictorially. Throughout my process, I think about light and value and the relationship between value and color.
Where do you get the inspiration for your pieces? In particular the two pieces displayed above?
A very important part about making art today, and historically, is studying the art of past generations. I love going to the library when I am feeling stuck in my work and looking at images of paintings that have been reproduced in art books. Right now, I’m reading a book called Art in America since 1945 and have found it very informative in regards to my own practice, more broadly in understanding the context of art today. Whereas, I was looking at a portrait bust from antiquity reproduced in history as a source for the drawing, the painting was made entirely from my imagination. I am heavily influenced by abstract [expressionism] generation artists like William de Kooning and Phillip Guston.
– Photo courtesy of Andrea Fourchy
– Written by Paayal Zaveri
