Andrew Baines

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Baines’ has become one of the most recognisable and collectable of Australia’s contemporary artists.  English-born in 1963, his family immigrated to Australia when he was a newborn, later settling in the coastal town of Grange, outside Adelaide. Since his youth, Baines has felt a deep connection to the beach. Family holidays were spent exploring new beachscapes, “the everchanging beach became a metaphor for my life.”

At age 10, Baines received his first paying art commission as a cartoonist for a local paper.  Pencil drawings sold to teachers and parents at his primary school followed. Leaving school at the age of 16, Baines was employed for five years by a retailer to produce window displays.  During his employment, he was accepted upon the strength of his talent, not having finished school, into a degree program at the South Australian School of Art. Of leaving formal art education, Baines says, “for me art is about bringing out an inner naivety which could only be developed on your own.”

Realising his potential as a commercial artist, Baines went out on his own, starting ‘Baines Graphics’. He produced murals and cartoons for BP Australia, the Australian Grand Prix, the South Australia Soccer Federation and numerous publications.

In his thirties, Baines committed to being a full-time artist. Driven by a memory he recalls from a visit to London at age 14, standing in the underground witnessing a sea of men in dark suits, bowler hats, umbrellas and briefcases, Baines paints to reckon with conformity. In an attempt to remain an individual while so many converge with “the herd,” Baines gathers people dressed as in his memory of London, to pose for him on the beach, becoming “surreal human sculpture.”  The stark contrast of black suits and bowler hats on the beach is captured in a photo, and Baines retires to his studio to bring his canvases to life with the scene. “It was my artistic way of letting the corporate battery hen metaphorically escape from long office hours and grey city streets to enjoy nature.”

Baines has been represented at Red Sea Gallery since February 2008. His paintings have been extremely well received and his subject matter is particularly topical - corporate people contemplating their futures in a “goldfish bowl” existence. According to Chris Churcher, the Director of Red Sea Gallery, “the majority of clients who’ve acquired a painting by Baines are corporate workers, they see themselves in the subject, hoping for that day of escape.”

Since Baines has been painting full-time, he has held more than 30 solo exhibitions and group exhibitions across Australia, Italy, the USA, Canada, the United Kingdom, Switzerland and Singapore.