When you ask Kansas City native Andrew Batcheller about his earliest art memories, the answer is instantaneous: “Andy’s Bird Book,” the book he made in Kindergarten. “I was always drawing birds. I still am,” he laughs.

Valuable encouragement from a high school teacher and two years at the Kansas City Art Institute added to his experience. Even though he worked full-time, the largely self-taught artist was driven: “I painted and painted and painted,” he says, “always in oils.”

“The paintings are their own language,” he says. “If I could tell a story or write it or photograph it, maybe I could do it another way. In a perfect world, I would just paint – finish one, pass it out the door, then start another one.”