Originating with her first drawing on her Playskool Chalkboard, Florida artist Andrea McKoy has nurtured her passion for creative expression over her lifetime. Outside of a few art classes in high school and college, Andrea is chiefly self-taught as a painter and is formally trained as a graphic artist. She took to painting full-time in 2017.

She is fascinated by both equine and human figures—as these are the primary themes of her paintings. She trained and showed horses during her youth throughout the state of Florida. This sentiment is what fuels her passion for exploring horses in her paintings today. As for the human figure—Andrea feels it is one of the most challenging subjects for any artist. She is continuously amazed at how easily the smallest mark can change an entire expression.

“The more I paint, the more I see that I have yet to paint,” she says about her motivation. She finds her inspiration in capturing light, movement, moods, and unique perspectives. She thrives on the creative challenge of manipulating color, texture, and composition to interpret her observations. Yet, she does admit her favorite moments of the painting process are the unplanned happy accidents.

She works primarily with oils, although occasionally she returns to acrylics, watercolors, pastels and even sculpture for creative variety. Her love of texture leads her to experiment with different application methods, and this occasionally includes mixed media.

Andrea’s work is in many private collections across the U.S.