ANDREW TYZACK

Andrew Tyzack is dedicated to the fine art of animal painting. He explores a deep instinct to paint the creatures that inhabit his life and imagination. Andrew humorously refers to his detailed approach as the “School of Anorak”. This scientific devotion is evident in his paintings of insects, fish, dogs, and other animals. Whether painting a shimmering shoal of fish or a fox moving secretly in the night, he combines factual observation with painterly technique. In the recess of his studio he stirs his inner cave-man, and animals assume symbolic and mythic qualities. Animal archetypes have become familiars, they slink from memory and subconscious to inhabit the canvases in his studio. Finally it’s as though his animals are released into the wild and exhibited.

Born in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, Andrew Tyzack is descended from French Huguenot glassmakers, who moved to Newcastle in the sixteenth century. He is a graduate of the Royal College of Art, and lives in Lincolnshire with his wife, dog and bees.

Andrew’s recent commissions include portraits, a ‘triptych’ of drawings based on the ‘seductions by Zeus’ in the guise of various animals, and ‘rehearsal drawings’ at the Royal National Theatre, London. Which are now represented in the Carl Heinz archive at the National Portrait Gallery, London, and at the Victoria and Albert Theatre Museum, London.

Andrew has been an artist-in-residence in the Royal National Theatre (London), Munich, Sweden and Hong Kong. He has travelled to the Kruger National Park, South Africa, Jim Corbett National Park, India; Taman Negara, equatorial rainforest, Malaysia and has camped in the game parks of Botswana and Zimbabwe.

The Tyzack family originates from the Lorraine region of 13th century France where they were glass makers. A Huguenot family, the Tyzacks settled in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England, in the 16th century, where they continued to make glass. Today the Tyzacks are still a creative force, being a diverse family of artisans, actors and artists.