Interview: Andrew Burns Colwill

Bristol gallery It’s All 2 Much is back at new premises (11-13 Stokes Croft) and with a brand new exhibition: a solo show for Andrew Burns Colwill, a Bristol artist and a name that may be familiar to long-time observers of the art scene here.

In 20/50 Vision: Tomorrow’s Habitat, Colwill presents a series of paintings and small sculptures that examine the paths we have chosen to take and raise this question: what are the consequences of these choices on our planet, ourselves and our children?

Colwill was born in Clifton, and has led a colourful life. Following “an unruly childhood spent at the back of the classroom drawing and painting to keep him out of trouble”, Andrew put his artistic talents to use painting scenic artwork for the BBC, backdrops for theatre companies and murals around Bristol. By 1988, his growing self-confidence and reputation (together with money from commissions, friends and financial institutions) led him to hire Ashton Court Mansion for a spectacular exhibition of some of his largest works. With over 1,000 visitors, all augured well for the future.

However, his increasing immersion in his work became fuelled by alcohol and drugs in a downward spiral of addiction. In an effort to break free, Andrew moved to Greece where he fought his demons and lived by selling art to tourists and locals from his makeshift gallery on a seafront. Andrew returned to Bristol in 2010.

Tell us your memories of that massive Ashton Court Mansion show in 1988. What made you want to mount such a big show?
At the time I was supremely confident in my work: I was selling a lot of work privately, and had had some success with a limited-edition print run, Royal York Crescent. But the truth of it was I was so stoned, I was a heroin addict at that time and I was painting at an incredible rate and selling as quickly as I could – very, very cheaply to get my next hit.
I hired Ashton Court because it was such a great-looking place. The work I was doing at the time was massive – 8ft x 10 ft flats which I got from Bristol Old Vic, who were throwing them out.
Was I confident? Yes: my work had always sold. Was I stable? No. I just thought it would be a great idea to hire the mansion. I liked it there. It just seemed a good idea at the time.

‘Alternative Vision’, one of the works to feature in the ’20/50 Vision’ exhibition

What were your hopes for the show?
I was only 29 at the time, heavily into drugs, and selling work. Fame and fortune overnight? That would have killed me. Recognition, I suppose, and enough money to keep me going (my son was also born that summer). I was very confused at that time, lying to a lot of other people, lying to myself about where I was going and what I was going to do.

Did the show achieve what you wanted?
I remember the Arnolfini asked all the Bristol artists to do something down there (for their seminal 1985 exhibition/installation, Graffiti Art in Bristol). I wasn’t ready at the time. Artists’ work has to say something. It’s brilliant when art becomes an investment, but for me it’s something that should be used positively – to push a message. I wanted to say something with my art, but the Ashton Court exhibition didn’t say anything. Well, some of the works said things. I had a beautiful one of a baby and a soldier sat on a road with a pluming atomic bomb cloud. I loved that painting.

Artwork by Andrew Burns Colwill at It’s All 2 Much

“… painting scenic artwork for the BBC, backdrops for theatre companies and murals around Bristol.” Tell us more.
I was working for BBC on the TV version of Tom Sharpe’s Blott on the Landscape and had a good time with Jimmy Nail, who played a drunk. We had a big crane and had to knock this house down in the middle of the Oxford countryside. I also worked on Robin of Sherwood and took Jason Connery out for a night – got into a bit of trouble about that one. Fred Gray, the scenic artist at BBC Whiteladies Road, taught me quite a lot. And I spent a great winter at the Old Vic doing the scenic work for Peter Pan (Christmas show, 1984-85) amongst others. Painting big, and fast, was second nature to me as I’d been doing it around Bristol pubs and bars for years.

Did you have any connections with the early Bristol graffiti scene of the time – Inkie, Cheo, Nick Walker etc – or were you doing your own thing?
In those early days Banksy and the whole graffiti scene was just coming up. I had already done around four or five shops around Bristol and had four on Park Street at one point, plus various pubs in Clifton that I had hand-painted. I wasn’t really involved with the whole graffiti or early graffiti movement. I met Banksy on a few occasions around Clifton when he was spraying the trains, doing his bits and pieces and hiding from the law. I was painting a large mural at the Lansdown pub in Clifton and he come and watch me work and say hello – he was a kid, around 20 if that, and I was around 30.
I know Cheo and Inkie now but I didn’t know them then – or maybe I did from the Dug Out, which was like our second home.
For me the street art scene stands for a new revolution, something like Impressionism before it. Inkie, Cheo and Nick Walker are all strong characters and will remain strong characters in art history. Street art takes art away from the nobs and gives it to the people. I am sure Lowry and Van Gogh would be proud.

How do you look back on your time spent in Greece?
Greece for me was a mind rehab – a gentle place to come down, and move my life on from madness to stability. I took off from Bristol in 1990 and went for a two-week holiday. After two weeks I decided I wasn’t going to come back to the problems, the drugs and the whole way of life – so I stayed there. It was a good time, but I wasn’t well and was drinking very heavily.
On the islands, until say the 1960s, families used to give their favoured sons fertile lands up in the mountains where they could farm – and the not-so-favoured would be given coastline where they could fish. With the advent of tourism I saw these less favoured family members becoming the nouveaux riches – they fell in with the tour companies and built large hotels. Some of them couldn’t read or write. It showed me another perspective of life.
I kept on painting: people loved my work. By the time I left, most of the restaurants, bars and discos in lower Pathos were covered in work by me and my partner Vicky.
Greece was where I regained some sort of sense. Slowly the mist started to disappear – and when that happens you have you have to face yourself, your inhibitions, your fears, why you were running away and what were you were so frightened of.

‘8 Ball Planet’

How has Bristol changed since you were first making your way in the art world?
I love Bristol. I was born here, my grandfathers were born here, my great-grandfathers were born here. The first thing I noticed when I came home in 2000 was the amount of traffic – unrecognisable from a decade earlier. One of the saddest things is the disappearance of the pubs. I remember as a kid the early 60s going to see grandpa in the pubs round the docks. The pub was a social hub: if you needed something you went down the pub to ask around. Bristol is still a beautiful city and I’m very lucky to still be here.

Tell us about the 20/50 Vision exhibition.
The show title is a play on the term ’20/20 vision’ – and how my life experience has given me a slightly warped perspective of the world. ’20/50 vision’ for me has two aspects: firstly, a point of view that sometimes makes people uncomfortable but which offers an alternative perspective to the norm; secondly, my interpretation of how we as a species may be faring socially and economically by the year 2050.
Some of the paintings act as a warning of where we could be heading as a race – but also illustrating how beautiful things could be. For example, Two Tribes features a gentle, hippy-type tree hugger on one side playing chess with a soldier on the other. That is the way we evolve – two types of people.

20/50 Vision: Tomorrow’s Habitat is at It’s All 2 Much, Stokes Croft until June 4. For more info, visit www.itsall2much.com/exhibitions/2050-vision-tomorrows-habitat

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