Andrew Carter lives and works in South East London, near to Peckham Rye. He is married to the artist Helen Ireland. He studied at Bournemouth and Poole College of Art, Fine Art Painting at Central St Martins and an MA in Printmaking at Camberwell College of Art. He teaches painting, drawing and printmaking alongside developing his own work as an artist. He works from his studio in London and on location, he is also a member of Artichoke Print Studio in Brixton.
During the last 20 years I have focused my attention on exploring the link between subjects found in the landscape and the geometric arrangement of pattern, marks, shape and colour. Whilst there is diversity in the places my subjects are found there is a commitment to a specific process of arrangement, drawing, painting and printmaking; most specifically in the cutting of relief blocks for printing.
All of my ideas start with something seen outside, between forms, through windows or fragments of the landscape brought into the studio; then, through a process of selection and elimination I try to arrive at a composition that is both seen and reflecting a particular memory. Whilst drawings and paintings show the evidence of working, measuring and erasure, my relief prints are carefully planned, traced and cut in reverse, before being printed by hand or on a press.
I am interseted in things that are easily overlooked and spend time investigating and revisiting these visual qualities, arrangements and accidental possibilities. I like how long it takes to develop a drawing or image for printing when the starting point might be from a brief and fragmented moment in time, a glimpse or a thought. I am engaged with decision making that comes into play when using colour, ink, the printing press and different papers, pencils, drawing impliments, watercolour, collage, oil paint and acrylic. I like the edges of things, the way shapes meet, accidental and incidental marks. Everything has a visual starting point and develops a narrative and journey in the process of making.
Collage, mosaic, still life, the patchwork of observation, the way things overlap to create changes in scale. Stopping and looking from any one point and being aware that everything then is a collage of shapes and a collage of colours.
The ideas for prints start with something seen or remembered, then through drawing and experimenting with the process of making I arrive at a composition for printmaking and back into painting. I still feel, after many years, I am right at the beginning of something, a project that is unfolding, where each new work relates to the last.
Andrew Carter November 2026
An interview with Andrew Carter for the 2016 Dulwich Festival can be found on dulwichfestival.co.uk Further information can be found on 155a Gallery website, St Judes artists in print, Jealous Gallery and For Arts Sake websites and galleries.