SOUTH SHORE The COVID-19 pandemic reunited Andy McKenzie with a long-lost love: painting.
A South Shore resident, McKenzie said he’s always painted, but his interest was renewed during the pandemic, when he had more time at home.
“My artistic focus most recently has been on portraits of athletes/figures from around the world whose stories have inspired not only myself, but countless others,” he wrote in an artist’s statement for the museum.
Most of his works make use of acrylic and spray paint; his style has taken on a very specific look.
“I picked it up from an artist I’ve been following, Blake Jamieson,” the 30-year-old said, explaining the style is similar to graffiti that’s pop-art inspired. “He’s started doing baseball cards and I thought I could incorporate (his style) into my own.”
Quick-drying acrylic paint suits McKenzie’s style, which is rapid-fire production.
“The way I work, it’s all really quick,” he said. “If I can’t get a painting down quick, I’m probably not going to get it done because I don’t have the patience for it. I can’t sit down and spend hours on a piece. I usually finish a piece in four or five hours. If I spend too long on it, I’ll critique it to death.”
A full-time employee of Valvoline’s engine-testing lab in Ashland, McKenzie said the only art instruction he has was in high school.
He’s found an unusual method of using his acrylic paint: stenciling.
“It’s a lot easier for me,” he said, explaining he draws the stencil, prints it out on nine sheets of paper and cuts it out with an X-ACTO knife before using it to prep the canvas. “That’s the majority of the time I spend on painting.”
He claims he’s not a good classical painter and doesn’t blend well, and using stencils suits his bold style better. “It seems like more fun to me than actually sitting down with a palette and trying to make something.”
His preferred subject: athlete portraits.
“I love the Green Bay Packers, but I’m also a Reds fan,” he said. “It doesn’t have to be a favorite team, more of a favorite player or athlete in general.”
To add to his challenges, McKenzie said he has aphantasia, a condition that means he is unable to visualize images.
“I can’t picture anything in my mind, so all my paintings, I know what I want it to look like, but I can’t picture it in my head,” he said. “But I know what I want the finished product to look like. … I can’t actually see it until I put it on canvas.”
Although most would think having aphantasia would deter a painter, but McKenzie said he didn’t even know other people could picture images in their minds. “I had never heard of it, so I never knew anything different,” he said. “It’s definitely been a learning experience.”