Amy Wood Artist
Creating unique pieces that brighten your day
My art is designed to tell stories that connect us. Sharing the comfort of moments that lift everyday experiences. I aim to create pieces that make life warmer and brighter.
Painting From Life
Whenever I can, I love to paint from life, rather than relying on a reference photo. I feel a photo leaves so much out of the story. Painting what’s right in front of me challenges my skill. Perspective, proportion, shifting light. Trying to figure all these things out for myself, improves the results I get, when I do paint from a reference photo.
Pottery The magic of fire
Pottery thrills me. So much depends on the materials and transformative heat of the firing. Sometimes a beautiful pot is due to my skill in creating it. Sometimes the best results are created by the whims of the kiln gods! Today archaeologists dig up pots that are thousands of years old. Ancient art that gives us clues to the stories and everyday life of those times. Art made to outlast the individual!
Art Matters!
Art is everywhere from your doona cover to your dinner set. Scott Mcloud in his book ‘Understanding Comics’ says art is everything that isn’t survival or procreation (Food and Sex) I love this way of looking at it. It illuminates art as the way we connect, entertain and communicate. Mem Fox said in her website advise blog that to write you need first to have lived. I feel as if I have lived a little more than when I began as an artist and I am having fun seeing what I can create.
Art has flowed through my life
In one form or another since I was young and the older I get the more important it feels.
When I make something that pleases me the feeling is euphoric. I spend a lot of time chasing that feeling!
Lately my art seems to be focusing on moments in life that interest me and tell a story, I enjoy the challenge of testing my skills to see if I can tell the story in a way that resonates with others too.
Today I was waiting in line at the servo and bumped into a friend who bought some of my pottery mugs years ago and still uses them everyday. I love hearing that people enjoy my work.
In between working I spend a lot of time walking up to the top of the hill on my road to watch the sunset, checking on my garden, reading footrot flats comics, talking to my dog, and asking my children “calmly and politely” to help with the housework, get ready for school on time and not wreck all my stuff.
