Landscape artist Andrew Cooper demonstrated his amazing visual memory abilities during a week-long stint painting at Noordhoek Art Point gallery recently.

Between friendly chats with visitors to the gallery and sipping on a latte, he effortlessly dabs paint at the canvas until there’s a spectacular landscape scene on it. For this particular piece, he has been painting from his mind’s eye, a magical, mystical and all-round quite spectacular talent!

The scene Andrew chose to paint is a mountain fynbos scene inspired by the Worcester area. “Two things are going on here,” explains Andrew. “The first is familiar subject matter. I have been painting mountain fynbos scenes for a while, so it comes naturally to be able to paint this from memory. Also, I think it’s important as an artist that if you are going to do that, that you have a strong knowledge of that area.” 

“In terms of process, I like to use the comparison of somebody who does descriptive writing. In their mind’s eye, they have created an idea of what they are going to describe in words, and for me, that’s just a visual description.” 

Here are a few progress shots we took over the week: 

We loved having gallery visitors pop in and sit down to watch Andrew work. His process and technique were wonderful to observe and had many a visitor itching to get started on their own paintings. 

A piece of this size takes Andrew approximately 3 weeks to complete. He has taken the piece back to his studio to add the final details to it and once is finished, we will exhibit it here at the gallery. Watch this space! 

Got a specific idea for a piece you would like in your interiors? Email us to talk about commissioning a piece.