Headwaters

40 x 60 inches 2024

Andy Braitman

About Andy Braitman

Every artist has a unique story.  

Let me walk you briefly through mine. 

I was born in Casper, Wyoming but grew up in Bethesda, Maryland. I didn’t discover art until college when I was convinced to take a figure drawing class. After taking my second or third class, I knew that this art thing was something I wanted to pursue more seriously.  Eventually, I changed my major and ended up graduating from the University of Maryland in 1974. I was very fortunate because at that time there were very few channels that afforded one an opportunity to develop as an artist after college other than graduate school which I saw only as a ticket into academia. Fortunately, I lucked out and landed a coveted visiting artist position from 1976-78 despite the prerequisite which, ironically was an advanced degree which I didn’t have.  Yet, because of this CETA funded program, I was able to sustain myself, barely, and continue painting.   I didn't want to teach; I `1wanted to make art. By the way, there are even fewer, if any, of these opportunities available today.

At that time, my studio was in Laurel, Maryland  and I eventually relocated to Baltimore where I shared a glorious space with a  marvelously creative printmaker named Sam Peters.  Sam is still making exciting and provocative art at 86 years of age while working and living in Las Cruces, New Mexico.  One of Sam's friends in Baltimore, Dan Doyle, was an eccentric electrician; but that is an entirely different tale.   He employed me off and on for the next several years, as a sort of an apprentice.  Whenever I ran out of money, I could work for a few days, weeks, or months for Dan until I paid off my bills and felt flush enough to suspend my work and return to painting full-time.   I acquired many fascinating life skills and talents during this time, including carpentry, dry wall, plumbing and even getting a lit cigarette up to Dan while he was working atop a power pole.  

After five years of this sketchy employment--painting effort, I tired of Ramen noodles, sharing the bathroom (after hours only) with the business downstairs, and hot dogs, (there was  a hot dog stand across the street from my studio (5 hotdogs for $1). In 1984, I applied for and received another Artist-In-Residence position in North Carolina (1984-’88). I got my first big break at the end of this residency when I was picked up by The Gerald Melberg Gallery,. So I again relocated to Charlotte, North Carolina.  

During these first 20 years of my career I explored purely non-representational and figurative imagery. I accrued plenty of critical acclaim with exhibitions across the country including  shows and representation in galleries in Santa Fe, Atlanta, Chicago, DC, New Jersey, and even Holland and Rio De Janeiro.  While this period was very exciting,  I  never got the overwhelming acceptance I needed to survive financially.  While I managed to keep my head  barely above water,  I was not able to really achieve my personal goals.,  It was kismet again that I met this young single mother of three boys.  After a few years, I really wanted to marry her but it  took me seven more years to realize that I wasn’t going to be able to do both: keep up my creative and exploratory pursuit and have a life with financial stability and a family.   

In an attempt to change my life and marry this unique woman, I took a job teaching health and science in the Charlotte Mecklenburg School System while still trying to satisfy the needs of several galleries.  After just two years of this mayhem it was my wife, Carol, who suggested I quit teaching science in a middle school and open a teaching art studio.

It was at that time, 1995.   With patience and again more than my allotted share of good fortune, I slowly built up, ironically, a teaching studio program and facility.  Within a few additional years, I realized the abstract and figurative style I loved was not going to help me achieve the financial success I needed as a step-father and husband so I changed what I was painting (but not how).  This opened me up to an entirely different clientele which has helped me achieve much greater recognition and financial success.

The content in my landscapes are of things that I know and love. My art is built on layering paint and creating texture with the brush and knife. Each painting will typically consist of 5-7 layers using color to create a visual play on the canvas. My goal is to create a retinal dance by using different colors of the same value and different values of the same color. This subtle variation allows for a longer view time and is meant to excite  viewers and ask them to look at a landscape with a different eye, the same eye that is used to explore nature rather than read text.

~Andy Braitman

As nationally recognized artist, Andy Braitman's work can be found in galleries throughout the United States. In addition to his 40 years of success as a painter, he also owns a teaching studio in Charlotte, NC.

As a young artist, Andy was selected to participate in the prestigious Maryland Biennial Juried Exhibition at the Charles Museum of Art in Baltimore. He was later chosen by Nancy Reagan as one of America's Leading Artists, along with other notable artists such as Frank Stella and Andrew Wyeth, and asked to contribute a decorated Easter egg to the White House which is now on display at the Smithsonian Institute Castle. His work has been featured in one-man and group shows in Santa Fe, Chicago, Atlanta, Banner Elk, Baltimore, Naples, Florida, Millburn, N.J., Washington, D.C., Noorbeek, Holland, and Rio de Janiero and Curitba, Brazil. In his hometown of Charlotte, Andy has exhibited at the Gerald Melberg, Hodges Taylor, and Redsky Galleries; and is currently showing at Shain Gallery.

Andy is a recipient of the Warton Award Grant for Outstanding Senior Artist

His students praise "his many geniuses"

Andy's decision in 1995 to open Braitman Studio in Charlotte, N.C. as an art school coincided with his plans to marry his wife, Carol. The school started with one adult and one teen class, and has grown to include a teaching and support staff for approximately 100 students and exhibiting artists. Andy has been surprised at the enjoyment he has found in teaching. His students praise "his many geniuses" - his ability to bring out each individual's own artistic style, his expertise is his ability to work with students at all levels, and the encouragement and support he gives to every student. “I absolutely love painting; I find it to be a constant challenge and reward and thoroughly enjoy sharing that love with anyone who wants to learn an insight into it’s magic.”