New Orleans-based Andrew Portwood's paintings are personal statements rendered through a dialogue between materials, echoes of his own personal experiences, and the emotions connected to those experiences. 

"I prefer to take a narrative approach by giving the viewer signposts and only starting points for their free associations and interpretations," says Portwood. "It is then up to the viewer to find and complete their own story and dialogue. Working from memories and the 'mind's eye,' dreams and emotions inspire my creative processes and provide a basis for my portraits, figures and landscapes.”

"Working from memories and the 'mind's eye,' dreams and emotions inspire my creative processes and provide a basis for my portraits, figures and landscapes. I think that art is a creative manifestation of one's own accumulated life experiences … the subconscious mind's need to translate one's present state into visual clues, symbols, pictures, and daydreams for self-explanation of life and existence. I am seeking, struggling for, and arriving at tangible images of personal understanding."

Education Auburn University, School of Visual Art and Design Bachelor of Fine Art, 1984

Awards

1984, Illustration appearing in Print Magazine Regional Design Annual.

1987-2000, Free-lance artist creating artworks for advertising and corporate clients, design firms and various publishers of literature for children.

1998, Junior Library Guild Award for illustrated children’s picture book Dragon scales & Willowleaves, published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons, New York 1998.

1999, Cover art commission for Knock At A Star: A Child’s Introduction to Poetry, compiled by X.J. and Dorothy M. Kennedy. published by Little, Brown, Boston Illustrated by Andrew Portwood and Karen Lee Baker.

Exhibitions

Heaven Blue Rose Gallery, Group show, Atlanta, GA 2006

Aliya Linstum Gallery, Atlanta, Ga, Scott Hill, The traveler’s diary, Introducing Andrew Portwood, Middle gallery, March 17- April 6, 2007

Aliya Linstrum Gallery, Atlanta, GA Andrew Portwood, Margaret Dyer ,Sept. 8-29, 2007

Aliya Linstrum Gallery, Atlanta, GA , Equus Curatio, Group show, Oct. 6-26 2007

Aliya Linstum Gallery, Atlanta, GA ,Group show, Holiday Exhibition Dec 27, 2007

River Gallery, Feb 1-29, 2008, Chattanooga,TN A different story, Andrew Portwood, Mary Cour Burrows Joan Rasmussen

Bennett Gallery, Nashville, TN, Artrageous, Group show, November, 2009 The Mercantile, Atlanta, GA 2009-2011

The Nicholson Gallery, Atlanta, GA 2010 - 2013

Pryor Fine Art Gallery, Atlanta, 2-week Pop-Up show, October 2014

Anne Irwin Fine Art, Atlanta, Small Works Show ,

2014 Muse Gallery, Roswell GA , 2015 14th Street Antiques, Atlanta, GA, 2016

MacGryder Gallery, New Orleans, LA