About the Artist

Brought up in Pembrokeshire, Andrew Faulkner, one of twins, wasknown to his fellow students and teachers as a person of great determination and persistence. Serious about his studies, a dedicated musician and a successful bowler in his teens, Andrew believes that most people can do most things if they are determined enough. His own earlier choices are now coming to fruition, one resulting in an exhibition of his paintings in Tenby this summer.

Although he remembers enjoying drawing from an early age, at home and at Penally School, it wasn’t until he was at Greenhill School in Tenby that Andrew positively chose to take art. “My emphasis was on drawing and ceramics but I was a perfectionist and very slow. It was a different sort of challenge to the other disciplines and one that I enjoyed, but not a passion then. I chose art again for A level and it made a good balance with my maths and music.”

With 10 GSCEs and 3 A levels Andrew made a surprising decision - to eschew the safe academic route wide open to him and instead to take a riskier way and become an art student. Leaving Tenby to live in Llandaff and start the Foundation year at UWIC in Cardiff, Andrew engaged with a variety of artistic disciplines. He especially enjoyed the making of 3D work under his “dedicated tutor, Dave Pounder, who really cared about what I chose to do,” and indeed suggested Andrew’s future career: architecture.

Having achieved a Distinction at UWIC Andrew transferred to the Welsh School of Architecture at Cardiff University, embarking on the 5 year course: years 1-3 leading to his first (B.Sc) degree, year 4 was spent attached to an architectural practice and year 5 was university-based and led to his second (B.Arch) degree. In order to be considered an architect proper however, further study for post-graduates, who are usually working full-time in a practice as well by then, leads to the RIBA Part 3 Professional Practice and Management qualification. Andrew is now in this post-graduate stage, currently working in a practice in Cardiff known for its conservation work and contemporary additions in sensitive contexts: complex, thoughtful work, considerate of a building’s history and the original building methods. Andrew was previously involved in the substantial project replacing the cloisters at St David’s Cathedral and the roof of St Mary’s Church in Haverfordwest, enjoying the necessarily meticulous nature of the job.

Article by Margaret Welsh, Art Matters Gallery, Tenby, May 2007
As printied in Pembrokeshire Life, July 2007