Andy V Taylor

Joy in colour

Artist Andy V Taylor calls his distinctive style ‘joy-pop’ - a synthesis of light, colour and emotion. His work transforms the coastal landscape into something more elusive: the sensory pulse of memory itself.

Writer Lara Allport

Milsons Point

Andy V Taylor’s paintings don’t simply depict the coast - they seem to hum with it. His canvases are alive with an inner radiance, as though colour itself were charged with the energy of remembered sunlight. The artist calls this approach ‘joy-pop’, a term that perfectly captures the buoyant fusion of pop sensibility and painterly emotion that defines his practice. Andy has painted for more than two decades, with early experiments in realism giving way to a lifelong fascination with impressionism. “Growing up, I was surrounded by impressionist paintings,” he recalls. “I loved the way they only truly came alive from a distance.” Yet his own work moves beyond observation. It was only after seven years living in England, and a subsequent homecoming to Australia, that joy-pop crystallised. “When I returned, I realised that natural colour alone couldn’t express what I felt,” he says. “I started painting the sensation of being there. The joy, the energy - colour as emotion rather than fact.” This emotional intensity finds its natural expression in the coast, a motif that recurs throughout his oeuvre. “The sea has always been part of me,” Andy reflects. “Those quiet hours waiting for waves, watching light shift on cliffs and sand. They’ve shaped how I see.” His coastal scenes are less literal than lyrical: they translate personal memory into universal sentiment. “When my paintings evoke joyful memories in others, holidays, weddings, moments by the sea, it feels like the work has found its purpose,” he adds. “Hanging a painting in your home is more than decoration; it’s a statement that beauty matters, that it endures,” Andy admits, years in England were marked by creative silence, a period that paradoxically clarified his vision. “I barely painted there. But that absence made me appreciate Australia’s extraordinary light and colour.” The rediscovery reshaped his palette into something unapologetically luminous - a chromatic declaration of belonging.

Lilli Pilli

Newtown

Ling

Commissions have also become part of Andy’s dialogue with collectors. “Before modernism, artists worked hand-in-hand with patrons,” he notes. “That sense of partnership still matters.” He is known for offering clients a money-back guarantee. “Though no one’s ever taken me up on it,” he smiles. Recently, Andy has turned to digital painting, inspired by David Hockney’s forays into new media. He says, “My mind enters the same space whether on screen or canvas. Digital isn’t a replacement - it’s an expansion.” 

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