ANDREW ORCHARD

I find it impossible to walk past a door with peeing paint or a rusty sign without taking a photo. I've always been fascinated by the way nature takes back things which are left to the elements.

In 1998 when I bought my first digital camera and the traditional constraints of a roll of 24 exposure film was no longer a consideration, my world opened up and I began to compile a collection of photographs - some of which stood on their own and others which teased the possibility of adapting and blending digitally to make new abstract artwork.
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My eyes are tuned to spot the beauty in the way things age and decay. The excitement of the hunt is what really fuels me - every interesting thing I see has infinite potential to be used in one of my digital artworks.
 
I collect possibilities. I've amassed a vast catalogue of images over the last three decades - enough to provide me inspiration for  many lifetimes, but still the hunger is there to seek out more inspiration.
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I work best when I'm responding to what I see rather than creating from nothing and that goes for my mixed media work too. I have no idea where the art will take me when I begin, I add and subtract the paint and textures and allow it  to take me on a journey. ​