Time gets more precious the older people get. This is not meant to be profound; it’s just the reality of life. Painter Andrea Kowch recalls being able to stay up late, paint all night, draw and sketch every free moment, work on multiple projects all at once and just generally crank paintings out left and right. That was a dozen years ago.Andrea Kowch in her studio in 2015.

Today, Kowch, who has a young son at home, is realizing that time is more precious now than ever before. “I have enough ideas in my head, notes and doodles, enough to keep me busy for 10 years. But there isn’t enough time in the day. But that’s what makes the work so exciting—every stroke matters now more than ever,” she says. “And that has made me more focused. It’s made me want to set my goals, and it makes every day more important.”

Kowch is thinking about time and reflecting back on her career as she puts the final touches on Without Measure, her newest work, and as we celebrate American Art Collector’s 200th Issue. She’s had paintings on five covers, all of them from RJD Gallery shows. Her first was Issue 69 in July 2011. Since then, many of those works have gone into magnificent collections. Nocturne, for instance, which appeared on the September 2013 cover, ended up in Ireland with artist and collector Laurence O’Toole.May 2019 

“Andrea’s work Nocturne is a very important addition to my collection. This is highlighted by the fact that it takes pride of place in the front of the house, as with all Georgian homes, visitors are always shown and received in the main reception room. It continues to draw attention and genuine admiration as it is a stand alone piece of supremely executed work,” O’Toole says of the painting. “Its fine veil and embroidered top, her porcelain skin and calm and knowing expression, all add to this unique, surreal and intriguing piece. A beautiful narrative of magical realism, from one of the most accomplished painters I have seen.” 

Collector Scott Carpenter owns Reunion, which appeared on the May 2019 cover. “Andrea’s work haunts me. At first glance, the paintings I have collected seem to present simple scenes of simple lives, rather calming in their stillness. But the details Andrea expertly captures—velvets and laces, grasses and weeds, subtle pouts and grimaces—are forcefully seductive,” he says. “I am drawn in and shockingly I am actually in the middle of a tumultuous story. I don’t know the plot but I experience all of the characters’ sharp and roiling emotions. The paintings are thick with them. There’s pining and loss, there’s contemplation and stoicism, there’s deep worry. Sometimes there’s just resignation…The surrounding nature her brush describes bends into these feelings, supporting and deepening them. In my mind these rows of black birds act as silent soldier witnesses to a parade of defiance and strength. In my mind these cornfields stretch to an unknown horizon, and also to this car’s destination in an uncertain future. I know the next time I sit in front of these paintings the stories in my mind might be entirely different but they will always be compelling and exquisitely told.”Andrea Kowch’s The Cape, right, on display at the RW Norton Art Museum in Shreveport, Louisiana.

Nocturne in Ireland with collector Laurence O’Toole.

Through the Boughs, the image on the August 2015 cover, is now in the permanent collection at the Muskegon Museum. And it hangs between paintings by John Steuart Curry and Winslow Homer, and around the corner from an Edward Hopper. So she’s in very good company, as are they.

Kowch sat for an interview with American Art Collector to discuss her work, her cover images and much more. 

You were first on the cover of our 69th Issue. Do you remember where you were at in your career when you made Sojourn?
I was 25 years old, home in Michigan painting nonstop, and in that passionate, creative space that many of us experience when the world feels wide open, new and limitless. It was a time when I moved my brushes with wild abandon, and was perhaps never more intensely and wholly engaged—body, mind and spirit—to the work I was creating. Over ten years later, much has since changed and evolved, personally, with marriage, motherhood and all the duties that complement that, as compared to that chapter when foundations were being established and everything was reasonably unknown and on the threshold of new beginnings. While my memories of those exciting times are fond, I love where I am now. I have reached a level of contentment, peace and satisfaction within myself that wasn’t as present back then, but that I was subconsciously always striving towards. There are moments I lament certain aspects of those early days, such as having minimal responsibility for anything other than painting, but I would not change a thing and I am right where I wish to be at this point in my life. There is, and always will be a certain level of searching, unrest and subsequent development, but that is the point of it all, is it not? There always needs to be a reason to express oneself through their art form. And while my priorities have naturally shifted from the former ones, they’re still in essence there, and the same, just manifesting and being achieved in new, more self-aware and deeper, analytical ways.Through the Boughs, center on back wall, at the Muskegon Museum of Art. It hangs between paintings by John Steuart Curry and Winslow Homer, and around the corner from an Edward Hopper.

When you first started painting, do you remember when and how you found your voice as an artist?
I listened to a lot of feedback and advice as I was growing and evolving from art student to professional artist. I carried with me whatever advice most resonated with me through the years and integrated that thinking and approach into my art practice. When I was in school and began to get very positive responses from my peers and teachers, it encouraged me to push the envelope further and experiment from a place deep within my heart to find my voice and visual destiny. Early on I was fortunate to have found the courage to keep exploring until I reached a turning point through one of the many major juried exhibitions I participated and placed in during the time. After winning the first place, Purchase Prize Award in the Northbrook Public Library’s International Juried Exhibition in 2008, and then selling all of the works that I created afterwards, I knew I was finally onto something, and that I had irrevocably found my voice, direction and calling. Then, two years later, when I teamed up with RJD Gallery, I simply knew my dreams had begun manifesting themselves into reality. I remain so proud, grateful and humbled by it all.Gust in a collector’s home.Don’t feel like you have to flatter the magazine, but how has American Art Collector helped expose your artwork to new collectors?
American Art Collector’s role in helping expose my artwork to new collectors has been paramount, along with my wonderful gallery, who has believed in me every step of the way. It has been an incredible ride that only continues, I’m blessed to say.
I have grown so tremendously as an artist, and forged so many special relationships along the way as a result, that there really are no words I can find to express it properly. My gallery has consistently found AAC to be the most effective printed selling opportunity that either of us have ever utilized. We have found a very direct correlation of sales to our inclusion in AAC, and the subsequent repeated grassroots sharing and re-distribution of the magazine. AAC has simply been amazing and truly lives up to its mission, and I continue to be grateful for, and proud of, all the wonderful opportunities and results it has provided me with and delivered on throughout the years. I must thank all of you at American Art Collector, past and present, for being such an important and major portion of my life’s creative puzzle and current success.Sojourn on display at the Grand Rapids Art Museum.Of all your cover images—Sojourn, Nocturne, Reunion, Gust, Through the Boughs—are any of these pieces particularly special to you?
Each one of my paintings are “offspring” in their own special way. Sojourn is undoubtedly special, as it was the first major “grand slam” that garnered me international attention and paved my entry into the museum world. Nocturne and Through the Boughs both highlight a special period of exploration wherein I wanted to delve into a series focused more intently on the art of portraiture, though these “portraits” are of imaginary beings. Reunion and Gust are both distinct works that marked an evolution in my narrative direction, as they more closely mirrored emotional turning points in my life’s odyssey at the time.

Tell me about the major piece you’re finishing now.
The piece I am completing now will definitely have a special place in my personal history book. It has been the most challenging to date, for a myriad of reasons, and during these unusual global times we find ourselves in. With each painting I seek to grow and challenge myself in new ways, to develop my craft and to significantly impassion the artwork. Begun right around the time I gave birth to my son, this work has been alongside me for every step of my newfound maternal experience.

In this painting, two women are stirring, peeling, slicing, dicing and pouring bubbling pots of apple butter’s fragrant, autumnal elixir into jars, as Mother Earth’s seasonal cycle beats on. Animals aplenty join the raucous, adding to the frenetic movement of activity, emotion and air around them. The women faithfully press on with their commitment to their tasks. Conceived, created and completed during my path into parenthood, this painting spanned the turning point and conversion of my own transformative experience into this novel identity. Unrestrained, limitless, immeasurable, like the eternal bond between mother and child, loving without measure is akin to doing little things with great love. The complexity of composition speaks to the multiple layers of thought and action that comprise daily life with a youngster, as attention is pulled in various directions and in varying intensities while in the midst of tasks that simultaneously require both physical and mental attention. The beautiful chaos, unruly and all-encompassing is further explored through this narrative of two women, whether sisters, friends, or mother and daughter, holding their own through the distractions and demands that endlessly swirl and surround them, reminding us that what must be done, must be done, and life is a progression of moving forward from one point to another, despite any and all commotion or diversion. Through it all, we learn what it is to truly listen, lead, laugh, love and live in the moment, all while maintaining composure in the carrying out of life’s
innumerable minutiae. —

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