I am a contemporary Australian painter and I work from my studio in Melbourne, Australia.  In 2000, I completed a Bachelor of Visual Arts at the Queensland University of Technology, and since 2004, have been painting and creating art on a full-time basis.  

My practice is underpinned by a playful exploration of materials, where I harness mistakes to create beauty.  While I am inspired and motivated by an experimental approach to image making, I consciously steer the imagery towards playful depictions of my surroundings, memories and imaginings. I find inspiration in gardens, through memories and travel, and in unexpected things too, like a friend’s earring or assorted candy. 

I frequently find that what inspires me in turn manifests through the act of painting itself, as my methods of painting often result in organic shapes that lend themselves to organisms, and representations of flora and fauna. I deliver the paint in pours, squirts and flicks, employing gravity and using the natural fluidity of paints to mimic the randomness of the natural world.

Each piece is multi-layered, creating depth with levels of sharpness and contrasts in opacity and transparency. I like to play with the focus in a painting by shifting layers, pulling them forward or rubbing them back, playing the layers like faders in a recording studio. Often there are old paintings underneath the new and I like to leave windows on the surface layers, peering to the old underneath.  I think of this technique as reverse collage and this thinking also inspires me to experiment with resin and collage, the results of which are strongly evident in my current work.

Although the delivery of paint to canvas is somewhat playful and random, the preparation of paint, chemicals and mediums is calculated and almost alchemical in approach.  My interest in the work of artists such as Kate Shaw and Dale Frank have compelled me to experiment with the use of resins and varnishes in combination with tints and synthetic polymers.  This use of resin resonates with my existing approach in that a precise combination of chemicals, when applied to paint, does its own work, resulting in random, beautiful effects that are unique to each poured creation and further facilitate the harnessing of mistakes to beauty.

Amanda Krantz