Lay of the Land statement

There has always been an autobiographical element to my work, reflecting my experiences through the landscape genre which provides ample opportunity to explore different concerns.

For many years I juggled a ‘dual career’. In 2018 the tension between the two sides became fraught as the space and time for research and creation were dramatically, and negatively, impacted.

Interestingly this shifted what I felt called to paint. The close-up whizzing by landscapes began shifting to more open broad vistas and wide-open spaces. As if through the act of painting, I was creating space in which I could breathe.

A common theme in this series is creating space to breathe, which is apparent in the titles given.

The variable approaches to these landscapes reflected the variability of my daily engagement with the world at that time – the rush of corporate life compared to the practice of the more contemplative pace required for art making.

Amanda 2019

PS The exhibition for this series happened in the gap between leaving corporate life and establishing my own coaching business. A time when I quite literally created space.