Andrew Ballantyne

Andrew graduated from San Jose State with a degree in Secondary Art Education. He spent two years as an illustrator in the Army. He taught High School Art at Santa Clara High School, drawing, painting and ceramics, for 34 years.

Since joining Oil Painters of America he has been juried into several of their National and Regional shows. His most recent awards were a first place ribbon for oil landscape in the Los Gatos Art Association Open Show, and a first place ribbon in the San Juan Bautista Plein Air show. He has been juried into Plein Air events in Carmel, Los Gatos and Alameda where his painting was chosen to be featured on the posters and all publicity for the 2015 Alameda show. In 2016 he received a first place award in the on-line Bold Brush Competition from juror Brian Blood.

His paintings can be seen at Gallery 24 in Los Gatos and Valley Art Gallery in Walnut Creek.

Andrew likes to paint Still-life subjects, the Figure, Plein Air Landscapes and Seascapes. In all subjects he tries to find a dynamic balance between faithful drawing, a strong sense of design and color, and a loose, spontaneous painterly style. He will compose freely, strengthen colors in order to achieve an outcome that is more pleasing to him. Andrew finds that for him, painting is a much more exciting process when there is a sense of freedom, exploration and surprise.