Andrew Hood Initially working as a graphic designer, Andrew Hood then studied for a degree in illustration. As a student he won the Gorstella Award for Fine Art and the Liverpool life painting open and as a result, since graduating, his work has made more of a migration into the Fine Art realm although he does still accept commissions as an illustrator. Hood’s work is a remarkable blend of contemporary Impressionism, expressionism, abstraction and realism. To create his landscapes, he uses an amalgamation of bold oil colours, torn card, sticks and bits of plastic, layered together to accurately capture the atmosphere of the location and the animation and sense of life of the figures within. Hood makes several trips abroad each year to gather reference for his paintings. Recent trips have taken him to Tuscany, the South of France, Morocco and Croatia. Whilst on location, he makes detailed sketches in order to better capture the weather, time, colour and ambience of the chosen place. His background in graphic design is evident in the carefully considered compositions and the overall structure of the finished piece.   Whilst he enjoys working abroad, he often looks for beauty within our own diverse and engaging landscape from the Scottish Highlands to the rugged Cornish coastline. Hood is an annual exhibitor at the London Art Fair and Art Holland. He has recently exhibited at the Oriel Gallery, Ireland, Beaux Arts, Bath and the Weifhaus Gallery near Eindhoven. As well as this, his work has regularly been accepted for the RWA Autumn Show. He has a number of prestigious clients including the BBC, Casualty, W.H.Smith, Art Group, Card Connections, Wetherspoons PLC, Riverside Cards Woman’s Weekly and Acrobat Design.