Amanda Slade

Amanda began her artistic life at art school in the 1980’s studying painting and printed textiles. It was there she began exploring the power of colour and the process of making marks and surface patterns on cloth and discovered the joy that comes from the art of slowly making something beautiful. The act of mark-making remains at the very core of her painting process today.

Amanda moved to Cornwall in the far southwest of England in 1997 seeking a place of inspiration to bring up her growing family and has worked on community art projects alongside making her paintings. Her work reflects her love of the wild outdoors and the details she finds within the landscape. She always has a little sketchbook and camera phone with her when out and about to jot down ideas and capture the moment. And when the weather is very bad, she retreats into her studio. Using layers of pencil, chalk, found paints, and papers her intimate paintings and collages are infused with texture, light, and colour, capturing the essence of a place, a fleeting moment, and an emotional connection to the often stark beauty and changing seasons of the Atlantic coast.

Amanda is also a member of the Prime Women Artists - a network for practising women artists across Cornwall, whose aim it is to build an informal community for women artists, to enable creative collaboration and mutual support, to support practice development and to create opportunities to raise the profile of women in the arts in our County as well as creating opportunities to show their work together. The network now boasts over a hundred members from across Cornwall.

Blackthorn