He’s not a complete unknown, but for someone so talented who has been commissioned to paint portraits for boxing legend Danny Green and Macarthur culinary giant Enzo Leonie, Campbelltown artist Andrew Siambis is not exactly a household name.
Not yet, anyway.
It’s true that you need more than sheer talent to attract the art limelight and make a living as a painter but it didn’t help that Siambis twice had to abandon his art.
Now, four years into his third incarnation as a painter, Siambis is certain this time it’s the real deal.
His works are intense and dark, like those of his hero, the Italian master Caravaggio, who lived a little over 400 years ago.
Siambis’s artistic skill and talent are obvious in his paintings and sketches, which depict some of the strongest human emotions.
He is presently practising his art out of the garage in the family’s Park Central house, where Siambis, wife Bernadette and daughter Raphaella moved to recently after selling their Glen Alpine home.
Siambis says the long term plan is for the family to buy some land nearby where they will build their new home – and an artist’s retreat.
There are also plans for an art school that would help out young local artists across Macarthur.
But that is all in the future for an artist with obvious talent, as his fans on social media sites Instagram, Facebook and Twitter testify.
♦ The year was 1987, young Andrew Siambis had just finished his education at Leumeah High School, and the time had come to go out in the real world.
“I loved art, painting and sketching at school and wanted to do it as a career after I finished school,’’ he says.
“But I didn’t know how to go about having an art career, and I didn’t know anybody who could give me some advice,’’ he says.
So Siambis did what the rest of us do, got a job and got on with life and tried to forget about painting and sketching.
But he found it impossible to ignore the fire that was burning inside him.
“I had this strong feeling in me that something was missing from life when I stopped painting,’’ he says.
Out of the blue he bumped into an old mate who knew the world of art and who also believed in Siambis.
So at the age of 22, Siambis was mentored back into art and painting.
“I remember that all of a sudden I lost that feeling that something was missing; I was back into art, full on,’’ he recalls.
But it didn’t last.
Defeated by unsuccessful attempts to stand out in the art establishment, unable to make a dent in competitions, Siambis once more drifted out of the artistic world.
He had lasted three years, followed by some commission work in the next two years, before the paints and brushes and sketch pencils were put away once again.
Maybe never to be seen again, such was his disappointment at the time.
And while the “something’s missing in my life’’ feeling came right back, there was nothing he could do about it for the next eight years – his biggest absence since falling in love with art at school all those years ago.
♦ About four years ago, Siambis’s wife Bernadette was diagnosed with breast cancer and he was gripped by the sudden realization that life can be fleeting.
While the prognosis was good, and he and Bernadette were prepared to fight and defeat the cancer, it occurred to him that you could very easily lose someone close to you.
“I knew straight away what I had to do,’’ he says.
So he pulled out his brushes once more, set up a canvas and started sketching and painting again.
“I thought, well, we have just one chance in life,’’ Siambis said.
“I have 50 images in my head I would like to paint, that’s how much I am into it now,’’ he says.
“There were times in the past when I didn’t have a single idea for a painting, so I know this is for me.
“Now, if I go two days without painting I feel like I am going to go crazy.’’
♦ Andrew is about to step up by once again entering his work in competitions, which not only offer prizemoney but recognition.
And of course he would love to have his work exhibited in an art gallery.
Like all good artists, Siambis says he hates the idea of parting with his paintings and hopes to be able to keep them all as long as possible, if not for ever.
But one thing he knows that he will never again let go is his passion for art.
♦ Apart from the commissioned work, Siambis’s paintings – and the sketches – represent what he thinks about life and death and the questions we all ask, such as is there life after death.
That’s why most of his work since his wife’s health challenges came and went have been described as being on the dark side.
“But I think there’s beauty in darkness, and that’s what I paint, what I think about death and salvation.
“I can’t write so I can’t put into words what I think, but painting my thoughts is what I do best.’’
He doesn’t like tags, but concedes his style could easily be called surrealism.
Looking at his work, it’s easy to see why his favourite painter is Caravaggio or Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio to give him his full name.
The Italian master apparently managed to get his paintings hung in churches despite his use of prostitutes as models for Mary Magdalene for example.
“He was brilliant, no doubt about it,” says Siambis during our chat on a lovely, warm autumn morning at Park Central.
“I was in Florence once and there was an exhibition of Caravaggio’s work. I spent three, four hours looking at his amazing paintings.
“There is so much beauty in his works.’’
As there is in the works of our very own Campbelltown painter Andrew Siambis.
