Andrea Petitto, CA

Andrea Petitto was born in rural Massachusetts. Her father had been a sculptor and Andrea grew up making things with modeling clay. As a small child Andrea was fascinated by the images in large folio books of Rodin and Michelangelo sculptures and these influences can still be seen in the strong sense of solidity and form in her paintings. In 1990, after a career as university professor and industry consultant, she moved to art.

Around the turn of the century Andrea devoted herself to the study of painting and became a full-time artist with a particular passion for the human figure, and by extension, other animals. Recently her work has become more abstract, using layers of paint and scraping down through them, she begins a painting without knowing where the painting will take her. The focus is still on the figure but at a new level of abstraction in which the gesture and posture as well as form and color are the focus.