Introducing: Andras Bality

We’re thrilled to introduce the latest artist to join The Willard Gallery - Andras Bality!

Andras is a contemporary representational painter living in Richmond, Virginia. We're grateful to be showing a handful of Andras's paintings of the Maine coast alongside some of his other landscapes. I particularly love seeing hints of the inspiration he draws from some of history’s greats (Monet, Homer, Vuillard, etc.) alongside Andras's unique talent in combining energy with a sense of delicacy in his paintings.

My introduction to Andras’s work - though I didn’t quite know it at the time - came from a lovely stay at The Quirk Hotel in Richmond back in 2014. The painting in our room stuck with me for years and it wasn’t until I opened the gallery in 2021 that I was able to track down the artist via social media. (See the photo from our trip to The Quirk below.)

Having the chance to now represent an artist whose work has remained in my mind all these years is incredibly meaningful to me.

Scroll below for a few Q&As with Andras, alongside his Artist Statement, to learn more about his work, his inspiration, and more.

What drives you to create?
Seeing, hearing, thinking about things for the first time. I am always on the lookout for an interesting composition, color relationship, or figure/landscape setting.

What currently inspires your art?
Mostly landscapes, when in Virgina, my homestate, I like to travel from the Eastern Shore to the Allegheny Mountains in search of scenes. I usually like to try and incorporate the human figure or animals into my paintings.

What response do you hope your art might inspire in a first time viewer?
I hope a first time viewer will feel calm and realize the beauty in simple things, and that they are okay, just the way they are.

Tell us about your experience painting the Maine coast.
All three of my Maine painting trips have been to Monhegan Island. I find the gravel streets, dirt paths, yards filled with pots & buoys, and the perpetually drastically changing waves & shoreline a never ending source of inspiration. This, combined with the memories and spirits of all the wonderful painters - past and present - who have captured the spirit of this island, draws me back to search deeper on each visit, always looking for the essence of inspiration.

“The search for beauty, truth and the universality of being human, (as long as one stays open, curious and positive) inevitably leads to a silver lining. Through the act of trying to make good paintings, which involves an idea and enough familiarity with the materials at hand to be able to bring the materials into a visually compelling state of being determines whether I succeeded or not.

Joseph Campbell said that the artist/painter is an alchemist. Observing something closely, getting down to its essence and then re-presenting the idea, turning it into gold, giving the viewer a possible path to get through a moment, a day, possibly a life.

I am drawn to the little things. ‘Life is every breath, every cup of tea, every flower.’ “
- Andras Bality

Follow along with Andras Bality’s paintings on his Instagram. Through May 2023, he’s painting one plein air painting per week at the scale Vincent van Gogh typically used in his landscapes. Look for these paintings labeled as “part of Terrior series” on his Instagram.