Andrew Tyzack
Bombus Britannia – Winner of The New Light Visitors’ Choice Award
Oil on canvas
120cm x 55cm
Andrew Tyzack is a graduate of the Royal College of Art. He jokingly refers to his practise as the ‘School of Anorak’, a reference to his meticulous approach to painting whole hives of bees in obsessive, taxonomic detail. He finds himself (the solitary artist) amongst social insects, painting the entire bumblebee communities of Britain, Europe and America. Where he renders the bumblebees’ pile coats in their specific patterns and colours (like miniature Mark Rothko paintings). Presented in order of species and caste, he sees the bee as a symbol of unity and cooperation, and alludes to their importance as pollinators and the fragility of the natural world.
Background:
• Notable Teachers: Peter Doig, Albert Irwin, Andy Goldsworthy, Graham Crowley, Christopher Cook, Andrzej Klimowski, Chris Orr, John Mclean, Martin Brooks, Kevin dean, John Norris Wood, Dan Fern, Rosa Nguyen.
• Notable Lectures: David Hockney (the Royal College of Art), Brian Eno (The Royal College of Art), Chris Orr (The Royal College of Art), Andy Goldsworthy (Tattenhall), Adrian Mitchell (Tattenhall), Adrian Henri (Tattenhall), Liz Lochhead (Tattenhall).
• Andrew’s recent commissions include portraits, a ‘triptych’ of drawings based on the ‘seductions by Zeus’ in the guise of various animals, and ‘rehearsal drawings’ at the Royal National Theatre, London. Which are now represented in the Carl Heinz archive at the National Portrait Gallery, London, and at the Victoria and Albert Theatre Museum, London.
Andrew has been an artist-in-residence in the Royal National Theatre (London), Munich, Sweden and Hong Kong. He has also travelled to the Jim Corbett National Park, India; Taman Negara, equatorial rainforest, Malaysia and has camped in the game parks of Botswana and Zimbabwe.
• The Tyzack family originates from the Lorraine region of 13th century France where they were glass makers. A Huguenot family, the Tyzacks settled in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England, in the 16th century, where they continued to make glass. Today the Tyzacks are still a creative force, being a diverse family of artisans, actors and artists.
• Andrew is a third generation beekeeper and runs several hives.
• Andrews bee paintings are in part inspired by the Pier and Ocean series of Piet Mondrian and Mark Rothko’s colour field paintings (see the rendering of the bees’ pile and markings).
• Andrew attempts to induce the vibrating energy and noise of a bee colony, through composition, mark making and colour to give the bees the spark of life.
• Other bumblebee paintings in this series include: ‘Bombus Europa’ and ‘Bombus Americana’. Andrew has begun collecting data for a new painting featuring all of the 250 species of bumblebees of the World.
• Gaps in the paintings are there because cuckoo bumblebees don’t produce their own worker bees. The cuckoo regicidal queens usurp colonies and enslave their worker bees. In Britain there are six species of cuckoo bees.
• Andrew’s Grandfather, David Tyzack, was born in Birkenhead in 1908. So poor that he went barefoot in the streets. He later went onto become a Regimental Sergeant Major in the British Army.
• “Painting and printmaking is a humane way of making an insect collection. Their sheer graphic beauty makes them perfect for piaintings.” Andrew Tyzack.
