How it all started…
It never occured to me to look outside my own backyard for inspiration for my art.
As a little girl, it started with my passion for horses. While we didn’t have a horse initially, my incessant pleading eventually prompted my grandfather to work out a deal with his horse vetrinarian neighbor to house one of his ponies on my grandparents property. For this horse crazy little girl, that pony merely served as a gateway drug to years of showing and training quarter and paint horses, and drawing them when I wasn’t riding them.
Where it led…
Today, horses still remain a large part of my work, but my art eventually branched into the other thing I loved- farm life. Farming heritage runs deep on both sides of my family and I was fortunate to spend a considerable part of my childhood on both sets of grandparents farms. The countless hours I spent playing, exploring, and eventually working right alongside them, instilled in me the values of hard work, attention to detail, strong faith, a love for animals and caring for God’s creation, and an appreciation for the ways of old and the farming legacy that had been handed down from generation to generation.
These values and ideas are at the heart of much of my art. Children play farming and stepping into the role of the next generation to continue the legacy, the bond between a farmer and their animals, or the appreciation of an old barn or tractor that has served a farm well. It also shows up as praise to God, the master artist himself, in a beautiful sunset, sunrise, field of baled hay, golden stand of crop ready for harvest, or a fallen leaf.
Education and Awards
-Member Richmond Art Museum
-Member Whitewater Valley Arts Association
-2019 Indiana State Fair Art Exhibit
-2019, 2017-2014 Richmond Art Museum Annual Exhibit, Juried Works
-2017 Colored Pencil Society of America Artspectations Show
* Honorable Mention Non Signature Division
-2016 An Equine Jubilee, Juried Work
-2002 BS Degree in General studies with a concentration in Fine Art from Indiana University-East.
My Process
Since my inspiration comes from my day to day life, I am often able to snap reference photos as I simply go about my day. The thousands of photos and videos I have taken and continue to take allows me to capture scenes, colors, and ideas. This library of images allows me to work in between busy times both daily and seasonally on the farm.
As farm life can be unpredictable and I sometimes need to step away from my work at a moments notice, I work in the dry mediums of graphite, colored pencil, and pastel. These mediums also allow me to render the intimate details and nuances of farm life accurately and authentically.
My art serves a visual expression of gratitude for this amazing life I am blessed to live. I hope you enjoy.
Amanda