My works are based on a fusion of photography and painting, using acrylic paintwork and collage. I paint urban scenes, usually of decaying buildings which fascinate me. They symbolise loneliness, tenacity and nostalgia but despite this my works are often joyful, frequently featuring vivid blue skies. My work is unusual, demonstrating an expressive, childlike yet urban style. I seek to merge the borders of photography which represents reality, into my own painting, my world of imagination, so that the two become one. I add fragments of old advertising, usually from the 1950s, 60s and 70s, as these symbolise a link to my own past or to the world of my family before I was born. In this way a building in a state of decay is contrasted to a time past when it was vibrant. I am repeatedly drawn to brickwork, which for me symbolises solidity and a sense of belonging, Englishness and permanence. This is a reaction to my own troubled childhood when my family moved from Yorkshire to Luxembourg in 1974, leaving me feeling rootless. From this trauma my art stems and it is for this reason that my work has a uniquely youthful and naïve quality.
I have been successful as an artist, selling over 100 works within the last two years, mostly through my site at http://www.artgallery.co.uk or through art fairs.
Andrew Reid Wildman, Scottish Artist living in France 