ANDALL BARTLETT – WATERCOLORIST

 

Born and raised in Mobile, Alabama, I spent many of my weekends hunting in the swamps of south Alabama, fishing from the pier on Dauphin Island, and navigating a canoe on the rivers and creeks of Mobile and Baldwin County. During the weekdays, I’d show up for high school, but I wasn’t interested in learning. But by the grace of God, I somehow graduated from high school. Then made my way to Auburn University, where I studied industrial design.

 

My 3rd-grade teacher asked me to draw a house on the blackboard, and I drew the house using a perspective technique, which I didn’t have a clue about perspective drawing I drew what I saw in my mind. The teacher was looking for a flat front view. This teacher planted the seed for the love of art.

 

Now retired from Auburn University as a professor emeritus of industrial design, I spent most of my career teaching and designing products for mass production. In product design, sketching is how the initial product concepts are communicated. I constantly encouraged my students to use sketching as a problem-solving and communication tool.

 

As a full-time design educator, I didn’t take the time to paint. However, in the fall of 2014, my interest in painting was rekindled, and I spent late nights reawakening my passion for painting. Watercolors have always fascinated me, and I began experimenting with various techniques and styles by painting landscapes, particularly focusing on lakes, rivers, streams, and seascapes.