Andy Forrest
A brooklyn boy graduates engineering school in '69, goes to Woodstock then sticks his thumb out and ends up in San Francisco. For more than 50 years Andy has been a civil/structural engineer and watercolorist in San Francisco. Self-taught and painting in the west-coast transparent watercolor style, he evokes the luminous qualities of the aqua medium. His subjects are varied, drawn from everywhere painted in an impressionist painterly style. The aim is to draw the viewer into the image, let them drift off and for a moment start to daydream! I was introduced to watercolor painting in the early 70’s. My apartment overlooked Dolores Park in S.F. and I would watch, unbeknownst to me George Post give his pleinair workshops. Evidently this icon, one of the early proponents of the west-coast watercolor movement lived around the corner! Keep it simple, catch that mood and be quick! Rarely do I spend more than an hour or two on a painting. Now, retired from engineering, I find myself drifting around town either ‘urban sketching’ or painting with my plein air gear trying to capture the mood and visuals of the City.
