About
The Artist

Andrea Newland is one of Western Massachusetts most prolific and talented artist working in a wide array of mediums with a wildly impressive skill-set.

Andrea Newland has been producing art for as long as she can remember. Her visual arts skills were honed while attended the Massachusetts College of Art and Design, from which she hold a degree in Art Education and Painting, as well as while studying classical painting at length abroad at the Studio Arts College International (S.A.C.I) in Florence, Italy.

“Though capable of producing work in a variety of styles as appropriate for commissioned work, Andrea’s personal creations embody the brilliance of the French Post-Impressionist works of artists such as Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso mixed with more contemporary artists such as Brittan’s Lucian Frued and America’s celebrated New Orleans artist Paul Rodrigue. Rodrigue is most well known for his playful Blue Dog series, but I believe his paintings of typical Cajun community events and people to be his best work. He is a master of reductive, impressionistic strokes and styles while still managing to create detailed scenes and portraits you feel as if you can step inside, which is also typical of Andrea Newland’s work and style.

Andrea’s compositions grab the viewer by the hand and bring them into the spaces she creates.  Works such as “On the Pond” makes viewers feel as if they are, in fact, swimming beside the dangling legs of the swimmer portrayed. Paintings such as “The Giraffe” give you the sense that you are actually meeting a giraffe up close. “The Giraffe” is a massive oil painting Newland created after a brief exchange with a giraffe while traveling in Kenya, but it is not a lone giraffe set out on the Kenyan grasslands. Rather, it is an up close and intimate composition that gives observers the sense of actually meeting a giraffe. One can almost feel the tickle of the giraffe’s muzzle hairs on their hands.

Andrea’s work is simultaneously playful and emotive.  Vibrant colors and imaginative, often whimsical compositions, such as those in “Debutante’s Living Room” and “Shack by the Sea for Two” entice viewers to explore the spaces and subjects she portrays like a flower-filled meadow beckoning curious children. Yet, compositions of works such as “Proud Father”, “Alex’s Model” and “Guest Bedroom” manage to retain a weight of emotion and personality often only achieved by master artists such as in the surrealist works of Picasso.

Andrea Newland is one of those rare individuals that seems capable of anything and betters everything that she touches. Newland is always creating. Whether painting portraits, commissioned works and murals or serving as art director, set and costume designer for Llama Lasagna (a beloved local super band of musicians that usually perform in other bands) or one of the other countless performers she has worked with, Western Massachusetts is lucky to have such a talented and prolific artist in our midst.”  

– Sarah Meikle, Local Business Owner, Artist & Winner of Smith Museum of Arts “Best New Media Artist” Award