Amanda Horvath

 

In conversation with Humph Hack - Curator

 

I asked Amanda about her first memories of making art. She told me, “I’ve been creating art since early childhood; drawing with pencils and collaging with textured paper and wax crayons”.

As a toddler she spent a long time in hospital and in the Summer, the nurses would wheel the cots outside to the courtyard, where there were many trees.

“My first memories are of observing the translucent leaves above, with the sunlight glinting through”. These early memories nurtured her affinity with nature and have continued to have a profound effect on her work.

Although she showed a great aptitude for art at school, it was later that she took up and achieved a BA at Sheffield Hallam University.

“My work was very different during this period. I experimented with printmaking and produced huge embroidered textiles pieces in bright colours”.

After that she did a teaching course and lectured in colleges for a time.

She told me, “My current work and style has changed and developed since - through exploration and a good deal of being out in nature with a sketchbook”. She does feel, nevertheless, that her art education helped her to be autonomous and innovative.

 

Amanda lives in the Peak District where there are many woods and forested areas.

“I paint what is around me and I think trees are very peaceful. I love how the light falls through them, creating strong dramatic shadows over the forest floor.”

She clearly finds this contrast between light and shadow very inspiring.

“I continued painting strong shadows, light and colours and I love the changing seasons with all their different moods and light”

Amanda also paints seascapes, which are also popular, especially calm beaches at low tide.

 

She uses water colour pencils to fill sketchbooks with observations from the woods around her home.

Everything begins with the observation of nature. She sometimes harnesses the effects of raindrops falling on the paper and smudging the pencil marks.

“My paintings originate from real places. Memory and imagination make a large contribution to my work. Sometimes I will paint directly onto the canvas outside if the weather permits. I work intuitively and in an expressive way creating my paintings quite freely”.

Amanda takes photos but never paints directly from them. A photo will often take her mind back to the place where she felt a burst of inspiration.

Although she loves oil paints she prefers to use acrylics because they dry quickly.

“My process involves working in layers and each layer has to dry before I can progress to the next. This would take weeks if I used oils and because I use impasto methods it would take even longer to dry”.
Because Amanda likes working on a fairly large scale, canvas is most suitable.Her paintings are very textured. She layers acrylics with both palette knife and brush. Following the impressionist style, she lets apparently haphazard marks take shape to produce recognisable form. She also includes sand in her seascapes.

Amanda does accept commissions. Each work would be unique. You could reach her via the CONTACT button on her home page.

As regards the future – “To continue working as an artist, making beautiful works for people to enjoy”

Amanda will continue adding new work to this gallery – both forests and seascapes, and show her work in other galleries and exhibitions.

 

October 2024

Featured works

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