“To capture this timelessness, where the movement and energy of life hang on the hinge of time,  what came before and the possibilities of what comes after, is to bring the eternal present into a surface, the canvas akin to a membrane—a womb, silent, pregnant with dormancy and awakening, in the stillpoint between the seen and unseen.”

-Andrea Mossop

At the heart of Andrea's work is gesture.

Mossop's sublimely minimalist watercolours scoop up the vital essence of nature from rapidly unfolding views experienced as a passenger on road trips. Watercolour demands immediacy and precision. From Canadian war artist Aba Bayefsky,  Andrea learned the speed and urgency of the respond-and-commit process of his fieldwork in the war years. 

The sensual materiality of oil painting, the crafting of an object which leaves itself as a lasting presence, interests Mossop. In layering skins of colour over the longer arc of time, Andrea finds the act of painting itself is the embodiment of movement into stillness. 

Mossop's journey began at age 6 drawing with her father at the dining room table, inspired by a beautifully articulated ballerina doll. The doll's expression of movement foreshadowed Andrea's lifelong fascination with capturing energy from life. Years later, Andrea filled whole sketchbooks at a time in rapid brush and ink drawings of the dancers from a corner on the floor of company class at the Toronto Dance Theatre and the National Ballet School. From this work, Mossop found inspiration to her major body of painting. A show at the Bau-Xi Gallery In Toronto in 2000 with her mentor Hugh Mackenzie entitled The Absence of Colour defined her interests in black and white work.

Growing up in the Toronto's vibrant art culture during the '50s and '60s, inspired by oil painting on site, classes at the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Royal Ontario Museum, led to her  BA in Fine Art at Western University followed by advanced studio studies at the Ontario College of Art. 

Over fifty years, Mossop has taught at St. Lawrence College Brockville, The Haliburton School of the Arts, and the Ottawa School of Art, in addition to offering private workshops and mentoring. Known for her depth of knowledge, Andrea's career forwards the legacy of the renowned Canadian artists with whom she worked while bringing her own energy and spark of insight to the collaboration with her students with breadth of imagination in teaching and lecturing.

  • 2024 stillpoint, Marianne van Silfhout Gallery, St. Lawrence College, Brockville, Ontario

    2008 The Primal Dream Project: The Long Works, Brockville Public Library, Brockville, Ontario.

    2008 The Primal Dream Project Begins, The Lobby Gallery, Brockville Arts Centre, Brockville, Ontario.

    2004 Retrospective, 40 years of oil painting, Brockville Public Library, Brockville, Ontario.

    2004 Second Sight, insight into process, small works on paper, The Thousand Islands Playhouse Theatre, Gananoque, Ontario.

    2003 The Invisible World, new paintings, Brockville Public Library, Brockville, Ontario

    2003 The Twilight Kingdom, paintings and works on paper, The Thousands Islands Playhouse Theatre, Gananoque, Ontario

    2002 Painted Passage, a 2 x 40” free-hanging oil on canvas and related images, Brockville Arts Centre, Brockville, Ontario.

    2001 Responding to the Light: New Works on Paper, Brockville Public Library, Brockville, Ontario.

    2001 Watercolours, The Weave Shed Theatre and Gallery, Cornwall, Ontario.

    2000 Stillpoint, Brockville Arts Centre, Brockville, Ontario.

    1975 Andrea Green, Brockville Public Library, Brockville, Ontario.

  • 2008 Bodies and Motion, Andrea Mossop and Laurie Sponagle, dancers Piotr Biernat and Emily Law, Cornwall Regional Gallery, Cornwall, Ontario.

    2000 The Absence of Colour, Hugh Mackenzie and Andrea Green, Bau-Xi Gallery, Toronto, Ontario.

  • 1982 Beechgrove Children’s Institute, Government of Ontario, Kingston, Ontario (2 paintings).

  • 2002 The Etchings of Hugh Mackenzie, catalogue essay, Gallery Lambton, Sarnia, Ontario.

  • 2020 - 2024 Private workshops and individual mentoring on Zoom

    2009 - 2020 Instructor, Ottawa School of Art Orleans (2005 – 2008 Visual Arts Centre Orleans, Ottawa.)

    2007 - 2016 Instructor, painting, Haliburton School of the Arts, Fleming College, Haliburton, Ontario. In Haliburton and at the Ontario College of Art and Design University

    1995 – 2020 Instructor Fine Arts, Thousand Islands Summer School of the Arts, St. Lawrence College, Brockville, Ontario.

    1979 – 2020 Instructor, privately offered painting class, Athens, Ontario and painting workshops throughout Eastern Ontario.

    1974 – 2020 Instructor, Fine Arts General Interest and Certificate Program, St. Lawrence College, Brockville, Ontario.

  • 1973 University of Western Ontario, B.A. Fine Art

    1974 Ontario College of Art. Fine Art - Advanced Studio.