TAD ANDERSON ARTIST STATEMENT:
I am a self-taught digital artist.
My field observations of Midwestern topography, geology, prairie, woodland, farmland, lakescape, and driftless landform, formulate almost every piece that I create.
I work in collage-layers of digital imagery, manipulating a series of elements into my compositions. Then I use my created hand-drawn digital brushstrokes in my applications, to craft each digital painting. Typically 15-25 working digital layers, each with separately painted brushstroke elements.
My compositions are depictions of terrain and landforms, flora, and often, specific landscape elements. My colors are always drawn from nature... flowering elements, foliage elements, water, sky, soil, seasons of color change. I compare the color abstractions to traditional/ancient organic painting palettes -- extracting raw pigment colors from crushed fruits, berries, dried flowers, foliage oils, indigenous minerals, clay or mud.
In my career as a naturalistic landscape design professional, I have created outdoor experiences that are rooted-in, inspired-by, and celebrate nature.
The same statement holds true for my art. Appreciating the value and wonderment of reading the land inspired me to begin painting it. I don’t approach this “reading the land” activity as a geographer, or as a geologist, or as an ecologist, or as an agronomist -- I am not trained in those disciplines -- but rather as an artist.
I usually compose on sketch paper first, on a drafting board... and sometimes on the kitchen table, then begin digitally. My self-taught trial-and-error learning over the years has included digital collage creation, canvas replication, textural brushstroke development, and color/hue extraction -- a learning period of both failures and successes.
