My name is André!

I was born in Portugal and I'm currently based in the Netherlands, where I started my art studio, creating original artworks, commissioned pieces, teaching drawing and painting with pastels.

Ever since I was a small child I felt a call to create art and now in the Netherlands, a country full of art loving and creative people, I have found a chance to pursuit my passion and I feel very grateful for each day I get to make or teach art for a living.

Throughout my art career I developed a particular interest for the realist aesthetic and I started to develop my own visual language with my in|square series. In this particular style I introduce a geometric distortion to my hyper-realistic drawings. These square based geometries are used for adding, subtracting, shifting or cloning parts of the drawing as a way of expressing disconnection, fragmented or incomplete information and depersonalisation, pointing out to our ongoing assimilation by our technology.

My work is a process in which intention and openness to whatever thought, emotion or "accident" that may arise, determines the outcome of the artwork.

In parallel to my in|square artworks I'm constantly pushing the level of quality of my realist pastel technique by creating small realistic pastel artworks from wildlife to still-life.

My love for pastels also led me to teach pastel workshops and classes. In my lessons I'm committed to guide upcoming artists to discover their own passion for the pastel medium and provide them with the tools to express their own vision.