“That’s it, I’ve always wanted to paint, and that’s what I’m gonna do”, decided Andrew Scanlan one day in his mid-fifties. The Dubai resident whose spent 25 years in the UAE has since been known to dedicate about 200 hours on each artwork using a concept he’d developed called ‘cellular art’. The artwork now produced by the award-winning British Artist sells for AED40,000 a piece. What’s phenomenal, is that whenever you’ll look at his paintings of iconic musicians David Bowie and Mick Jagger, you’ll now realise that they’re the result of Andrew bouncing around in his studio to their songs while he paints them in a new perspective. Melissa Randhawa has the story.
Andrew will invest a hefty number of hours on the subject of his artwork, very much like a seasoned actor who studies a well-known character that they’re planning to enact. It’s that thorough, meticulous, and often, exceptionally rewarding. His vivid career in the financial services industry is a demanding one, and therefore, unwinding with art and music is a tremendous boon. “Mick Jagger has been around all my life”, commented Andrew, “and his music is important to me. So by listening to his music, I get the frame of mind to paint his portrait.”
His cellular art painting of Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, is a testament to Scanlan’s immense appreciation for the United Arab Emirates. “Having spent half of my life in Dubai, I have always enjoyed following the lives of our rulers”, expressed Andrew. “Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, affectionately known as Fazza under which he published his accomplished poetry, is adored, particularly by Dubai’s younger generation. He is wise beyond his years and has a warm persona of approachability and caring. Dubai’s future is bright”.
The Winner of the World Art Dubai Emerging Artist Award likes to finish what he starts, a discipline that’s benefitted his career as an artist. “Some paintings have more than 40,000 cells of individually mixed portions of acrylic paint”,added Andrew, whose art is warmly appreciated by popular art communities such as Art Fusion Night. His painting of Sir Winston Churchill was rather striking on his segment which aired on Zayed the Inspirer; it was filmed in the Andrew Scanlan Gallery at the DIFC.
“I do need a bigger studio for my artwork”, stated Scanlan, when his talent began to scale newer heights. His popularity soared amongst the golf community after the Dubai Desert Classic asked Andrew to paint the English Professional Golfer Tommy Fleetwood. “The experience of being able to present Fleetwood with my art was surreal”, recalled Andrew, who was invited to exhibit a fleet of stunning paintings, that year.
His philosophical approach, especially with cellular art, is to paint pictures that give art a new look. “Cellular art is a good way of expressing”, shared Andrew, “as it lets people see a painting in a different way.” He developed this unique concept which involves painting in very small dots or pixels of acrylic paint. It’s a draining endeavour for which he can spend nearly three months at a time to produce just one painting. The paintings are a series of dots of pure colour, as opposed to fluid brushstrokes that convey at once both chaos and harmony. The technique is similar to Pointillism which was born in 19th Century France, and it evokes a science of the eye to create an optical illusion effect. “I like to play around with the idea that there is order within chaos”,declares the artist on his self-named Instagram account ‘AndrewScanlan’.“The results are great as people hadn’t seen paintings that way before”,he added.
In a recent radio interview, Scanlan admitted that the pandemic months brought a darker and more expressive nuance to his canvases. In fact, a painting called ‘Lockdown’ was born out of that period. “I’m quite claustrophobic”,shared Scanlan, “and for me, painting was a release. As a result, I’ve changed my approach, so rather than painting the accuracy of physical attributes, I’ve begun to express the emotions.”
Scanlan’s artwork in cellular art and other styles such as his retro psychedelic piece on John Lennon, also includes ‘Street Fighter’, “Hazel’, ‘Yasmin’, ‘Bowie in the Matrix’, ‘Saloon Bar Smith’, ‘Marilyn’ (Monroe), ‘Zebra’, ‘Solitude and the Pale Blue Dot’, ‘Black on Black’, ‘Joker – A Troubled Mind’, and ‘A Beautiful Mind’ for his salient interpretation of Albert Einstein. All of his artworks so far have been painted in Dubai, which as a culturally diverse city continues to be an ongoing inspiration for him and his outstanding talent to shine and grow.
Additional insights into his artworks are available on his website www.andrewscanlanart.com where he offers all his original paintings in top quality fine art print.
The good: Developing a unique technique of ‘cellular art’ and contrasts in order to rediscover colours and to celebrate the science of the eye.
The bad: Having a self-made graveyard of discarded paintings that represent several hours of work. Is that a characteristic trademark of great artists?
The trendy: Presenting art as a wonderful bridge with which to engage the thriving global art community especially through social media platforms.
Melissa Singh Randhawa is a Dubai-based news editor who loves sailing, art, economics and astronomy. As Brand Ambassador for SheScapes Global and the Delhi Poetry Festival, her network portfolio is rich with diversity. She is a sustainability champ at heart, a spokesperson for the International Fashion Innovation Conclave and works with NGOs for the United Nations. Born and raised in Dubai, she enjoys research writing about the UAE and those who shape the nation (Khaleej Times —Business & Culture). With 27 years as a published journalist, her byline appears in the UK, HK, UAE, USA & the Far East media. New York Times —Dubai: Refined Desire.