Andrea Carlson Art – Bio
Artist and musician Andrea Carlson, longtime Doylestown, PA resident, was born in Knoxville,
Tennessee, after her parents and two older brothers escaped from Hungary during the uprising
in 1956. Freedom was a very important aspect of growing up. Andrea was taught from the very
beginning that she can be anything she wanted to be, and to fearlessly follow her heart... and that’s
just what she did.
Often described as a “Renaissance Woman”, Andrea has always been driven by her passions of
creativity and artistic expression in a variety of areas in the arts. As a singer and guitarist, she has
toured throughout the United States and Europe. Her original compositions have won multiple
regional awards, in addition to being licensed for films and the Royal Conservatory of Music vocal
program. Andrea’s music was frequently broadcast on the beloved WXPN show “Sleepy Hollow”, on
Saturday mornings with well-known host, Chuck Elliott. Along with an active performing schedule in
the greater Philadelphia area, Andrea has been performing for the past 10 years at the Edinburgh
Fringe Festival, with her band “The Love Police”. As a recording artist, she has released six albums,
with a seventh album currently in production. Andrea holds a degree in Classical Guitar from the
American Conservatory of Music, and is on the classical guitar faculty at Settlement Music School,
Willow Grove Branch.
As a visual artist, Andrea’s passion to create was evident throughout her early life, and it was her
dream to be a “real” artist one day. Following her childhood dreams, she worked towards a fine art
degree at Columbia College in Chicago for 2 years. It was there she discovered that art in an
academic setting didn’t quite quench her thirst to grow as an artist and compromised the free spirit of her works.
She decided to instead turn her formal studies to music and continued to do art as her heart would
guide her. In addition to painting, this included fiber arts (knitting, dying, and spinning wool),
sculpted clay jewelry, and painted sculptural furniture of her own design. In 2013, she began to sketch
with pencil while traveling in Europe as a musician. Her sketches are primarily architecture
(and almost always with trees, one of her favorite artistic subjects). Though many of her sketches
feature cherished sites in Europe and the UK, local Doylestown homes and buildings make up the bulk
of about 150 detailed drawings. Andrea uses sketching as a meditation, always plein air, and with her
black Prismacolor “Noir No 935”- her “Magic Pencil”, as she calls it .
During the COVID era, Andrea returned to painting with an explosion of new inspiration, and she has
continued to create new works on a regular basis since 2021. Most of her visual art is oil paint on
canvas, but some of her works feature other mediums, such as gouache and pastel. Along with her
love of interiors and exteriors, you will see a wide range of treatments in the way that
she paints trees, figurative work, and still life.
Forever dedicated to the idea of art without boundaries, Andrea's artist
endeavors are driven by adventure, risk, and the devotion to following her heart.