BWAC Member Spotlight
Welcome to our Member Spotlight as we introduce the world to our wonderful members. We are proud to be a member-based organization providing exhibition and collaboration opportunities to artists working in various media.
We invite you to meet some of our featured artists as we “open the doors” to our artist community.
Andrea Biggs
1. Please tell us something about yourself. Where did you grow up? Where did you go to school? Did you have a different career in mind before deciding on being a full-time artist?
I grew up in Michigan. I attended Michigan State University. In my junior year I studied for a semester at Mexico City College where I met my husband Timothy G. Biggs from California. I received my MFA from Bard College while Timothy taught Anthropology at Simon’s Rock Early College. We moved to New York in 1985 and I was represented by a gallery while Timothy studied at Parsons. In 1990, Tim and I launched Biggs Art Studio, a highly successful fine art decorative painting business. For 20 years, we created many mural and other decorative projects for noted clients in New York City and throughout the U.S. and Europe, such as Joan Rivers, Donna Karan and Ellen Tracy. We were members of The Mural Society of NYC and participated in many trade shows including the Architectural Digest Show. Timothy passed in 2015. I was certified as a personal trainer and currently work at a fitness studio in Manhattan. I continue to paint and exhibit. I am a member of the Salmagundi Club, the National Association of Women Artists and BWAC.
2. Can you walk us through your creative process? How do you approach starting a new piece?
I usually start with a subject that interests me, using one of my photographs for inspiration, then build upon that image.
3. Your work is juicy and voluptuous. Have you always worked that way?
No matter the subject--portrait, landscape, flower or still life--I concentrate on creating drama through light.
4. Has your work always been realistic still life, or did you go through phases with other subjects?
Generally, my treatment of the subject has been realistic, but I eventually end up with a more stylized approach.
5. You crop your scenes tightly, which creates an interesting tension, not to mention the sense of ripe fruit bursting off the wall. How did you evolve into doing that?
The only time I cropped the image was for the “Big Fruit” series. Currently, I’m back to painting my true passion, still life influenced by the flower and big fruit series.
