Born and died in Blairgowrie. Painter in oil and watercolour of landscapes and country life. In 1853 he started as a house painter earning two shillings a week. Married in Edinburgh but returned to Blairgowrie becoming indelibly associated with the town. Maintained a large fish tank at home, his early reputation rests largely on his meticulous studies of fish. In 1882 he won a Gold medal and £50 for the best genre painting in the RSA. Andrew Carnegie paid £500 for a crowd scene commemorating Carnegie's visit to Dunfermline with his mother, a painting in which Andrew Blair provided the background street scene, which can now be seen in the Dunfermline Andrew Carnegie Birthplace Museum. In 1871, and again in 1875, he visited Paris studying for two months in the Louvre. During his stay he was arrested as a spy. Friendly with many artists including David Farquharson, George Whitton Johnstone, Hugh Allan, William Dickson, Tom Scott, Michael Brown, James Spindler, T Austen Brown and Thomas Burnett. He had ten children, two of whom became artists.
Exhibited RSA (40) 1865-1879, and GI (7). Represented in Perth AG where there is also his portrait bust by TS Burnett.