Hi, I'm Andrew Roi.
I was a high school art student when I first became aware of what watercolour truly is. I had stumbled across a small book that recorded the journey a watercolourist had taken from the source of the Clyde river in Scotland down to the sea. I was enthralled by the subject, but also the special quality of light and mood. Watercolour had seemed to capture it all in a very special, gentle, and poetic way.
Having studied Visual Art & Design at the Eastern Institute of Technology in New Zealand, I have worked with various media from oil painting to printmaking, digital media and photography, and I have enjoyed the particular facets of each. Because of my love for its unique characteristics, I have returned to watercolour.
Watercolour, as a medium, is perfect for the traveling artist. I love the immediacy of it. The simplicity. The transparency. The way that it flows and seems to produce the best results when it is allowed to... 'paint itself'.
As a child I was fortunate to live on the very edge of the city, and could simply climb over the fence to be in nature. Exploring and immersing myself in this natural world of fields and trees, marshes and streams, and later mountains and oceans and distant lands, I developed a deep affinity for it. My connection to this 'sublime world,' and to human expressions of it, through architecture and garden landscapes, grew deeper throughout my life, and this connection is what informs my work as an artist.
Painting is really my way of reflecting back to nature, just as humans always looked to nature to find a reflection of themselves.
Sharing my work through taking part in exhibitions as well as online, is my way of communicating my vision to others. For myself, as for any artist, the greatest pleasure is in seeing the delight of others as they experience the source of this vision, through my work.
If you would like to purchase my original watercolours, please contact me. I'd love to hear from you.
You can follow me on social media, to keep up with my work and my latest adventures.