Amanda is a multi-media fine artist, working primarily in the tradition of oil and acrylic painting, graphite, charcoal,ink and pastel drawing, intaglio printmaking, and in sculpture using paper, plaster, and clay. Her work explores many subjects from
landscape, still life, animals, portraiture, the human figure, anthropomorphic figures in 17th century costume, ballet costume and classical art.

Landscape paintings have their inspirational roots in the agrarian environment both around the Overberg region and the Scottish Highlands. These two geographically distinct areas share visual and emotional affinities: vast skies, dappled light and clouds , wind-blown trees, mountain ranges, open plains, and bodies of water—whether lochs, dams, or sea. The work often includes the rustic elements of Cape and Croft vernacular architecture, as well as the animals and flora—fynbos and bracken—that form part of a farm life intertwined with the land.

Working with Still life affords a more personal, reflective quality in subjects such as Entropy, where paintings explore nostalgia, decay, and personal history. Compositions combine objects and ephemera such as weathered household items, discarded farm rubbish, broken china, old toys, bones, and other found objects. These evoke the passage of time and the resonance of forgotten things.

As a lifelong animal lover, the beasties on the farm be they, cats, chickens, geese, cows, donkeys or neighbouring horses, are ongoing subjects for paintings and drawings. Their presence is both literal and symbolic, offering a constant source of inspiration,emotional connection and a reminder of life cycles.

In portraiture and figurative paintings the themes of identity and personal family history are explored in the painting series White Privilege, while in ink drawings and etchings, movement and bodily presence with reference to classical sculpture, is found in Motion and Stasis. These works blend realism with conceptual inquiry, while allowing the personal and historical.

In sculptural works, Amanda is especially drawn to the formal and painterly qualities afforded by paper sculpture. This material comes alive in the paper sculptures of Animale of 17th &18th century  costumed animals,  as well as in ballet figures inspired by the Ballet Russe, displayed in a sculptural paper theatre, all of which merge whimsy and historical reference.

Recent work includes Grand Tour Curiosities, a series of box frames inspired by 18th & 19th century European collecting traditions. These pieces feature hand-cast plaster intaglios of cameos, coins, insects, shells, coral, beetles, butterflies and architectural decorative mouldings, displayed in shadow boxes lined with marbled and painted papers reminiscent of antique book-boxes, celebrating the combination of classical antiquity, travel and curiosity collections

Amanda is a founder member of the Baardskeerdersbos Art Route, and has exhibited on the art route since its inception in 2008, with 20 Solo Exhibitions on the Art Route.

Exhibitions take place at the Stables Studio & Gallery on Assegaai Bosch Farm.

Amanda sells her work online from this web site and from Instagram.

Please contact her via the contact page if you would like to find out more about her work. She sells locally and internationally, and ships anywhere at reasonable postage rates.

To view her work please click on each Portfolio section.

Please also visit the Links page to see more.

Thank you for visiting her web site.

"Art, in its highest expression, explains our existence to us, both the particularities of the artist's own time and the universals of all time, or at least human history. It transcends transience and therefore reconciles us to the most fundamental condition of our existence. In the history of art, unlike the history of science, what comes after is not necessarily better than what came before." Theodore Dalrymple (2001)