KINGSTON, Jamaica — Jamaican artist Andrae Green, trained at the Edna Manley College of the Visual Arts, has seen one of his works recently accepted by the Louvre Museum in Paris for the 152nd international three-day “salon” of the Societe Nationale des Beaux Arts in December.
www.masslive.com’s recent feature on Green says the artist likes to paint human figures on a huge scale.
“Anything over your body size is almost as if you have willed something to life,” he said with his radiant smile. “It’s an incredible feeling. In my spirit I’m 35 feet tall.”
And true his liking the painting selected for the Louvre is an oversized portrait of Sir Percy Wyndham.
Born in Kingston, Green began drawing at an early age, inspired by comic book heroes. “When my dad saw me drawing,” said Green, “he usually would take away my sketchpad and say, ‘Read a book!’” His mom would give it back.
Green as a youngster benefited from an “awesome teacher” named Michael Archer at St Cecilia Preparatory School, who opened up for him the possibility of a career in art, the feature said.
It was Archer, said Green, who encouraged him to enrol at the Edna Manley College of Art.
Green then went on to earn a Master of Fine Arts degree at New York Academy of Art in the USA. “He has exhibited in cities from Beijing to Providence, RI.”
He has also taught college art courses. “Teaching is in my blood,” he said. Both his parents were teachers, and his brother is a teacher.
The history buff says he does “a lot of reading and research” for his paintings. According to Green his work always hints at the history of slavery in Jamaica, even if it’s not in an overt way. “History is a kind of substrata that you have to launch yourself from,” he said.
Source: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/