The journey along life’s unexpected twists and turns has brought Andi Sawyer to a place where she’s still happily mystified to have arrived. Even though her childhood in Maine was spent organizing boxes of crayons by color, coveting paint by number kits, and being elated standing in front of the classroom easel, she never could have imagined herself one day being a fulfilled artist in Provincetown. 

Sawyer grew up with glimpses of what an artist’s life could be. She knew that her mother had attended an art school in Boston but never spoke about it. “The only evidence was a box in the attic that I would often surreptitiously look through,” she recalls. “As an adult my mother rarely made art but she was naturally artful in everything she did and she taught me to cook, sew, knit and garden with an artist’s eye. But the most important thing she taught me was inadvertent: keep painting even when you think you can’t. Often that’s precisely when I make a forward leap.”

While her mother served as her most prominent early mentor, she drew strength from the artistic community around her. Like Cape Cod, Maine’s dramatic coastline is dotted with a rich tapestry of museums and galleries. Its farmhouses and cottages have also likewise served as studios for many giants of New England’s artistic heritage such as Edward Hopper and Andrew Wyeth. Sawyer recalls being moved to tears when she first saw Wyeth’s Wind from the Sea in the Portland Museum of Art.  

These youthful aspirations would percolate for years to come but it wasn’t until a fateful trip to Provincetown that Sawyer would make her biggest leap.

She was 46 when she first visited Provincetown with her late husband in 1995 and was struck by the quality of light and was immediately drawn to the town. When she returned home to Maine after this fateful visit she set up a home studio and began working in watercolor. Her first pieces were all streetscapes from photos she had taken on the trip. After two years she bought oils and through determined trial and error taught herself how to work with them. “I loved the tactility of oils and the vibrancy of the colors,” she says. “They’re still my favorite medium and are perfect for capturing the illusive, magical, Provincetown light.”

In 2012 Provincetown became her full-time home and in all that time her love of it has never faltered. “It’s my muse, my love in all seasons and all times of day, but especially at night,” she says. “Night street scenes are a favorite of mine and rain often features in my work as well. I love the way it subtly distorts familiar subjects and adds a sense of mystery to the ordinary.”

In this time she’s studied under, worked alongside, and befriended many of her fellow artists drawn to the ends of the Cape. Her work has been featured at numerous galleries around town but another big leap is in the making as she will be opening her first gallery, Cad Red Studio opposite Kiley Court in Provincetown in mid-May.

“I guess one could call me a late bloomer but I prefer to think of myself as committed and persistent,” Sawyer says. “When the opportunity came up to open a gallery, I questioned my sanity, but said to myself, ‘At 76, if I don’t do this now, I never will.’ The advice I’d give anyone (and wished I had gotten) is, ‘Don’t worry about what other people are doing. Keep doing your work. It’s who you are and you’re enough.’”  

Andrea M. Sawyer’s work can be seen at Cad Red Studio, 437 Commercial Street, Provincetown on Instagram @andreamsawyer and at andreamsawyer.com.