I am very excited about these paintings and drawings – I am beginning to grow into my art and have FUN!

Paintings

Some of my most enjoyable paintings are painted direct from life. I love sitting outside in nature and capturing what I see in front of me. I find it a fun complement to painting in the studio from a photograph. Painting from life is dynamic and spontaneous. The light changes, the weather changes and it challenges my skills in a way a photograph doesn’t!

Some subjects are harder to capture from life. People and animals are to important to leave out – I paint them from photos I have taken. One day I will have the skill to paint them from life also but photographs are a wonderful resource and reference at the moment!

Drawings

I am so very proud to share some of my drawings in this exhibition.

These ten drawings are favourites from my One Year Drawing Challenge. Drawing every single day for a year.

I wasn’t sure if committing to this challenge was a good idea.

I am posting my drawing every day on facebook and Instagram (you can follow me @amywoodartist) So far the only negative side effect is a mild social media addiction.

The upside is that I feel so proud and delighted with the drawings, the process and how much I am learning.

I spend an average of one hour per day on these drawings. Drawing people is what I really want to get good at. Sometimes I have an idea that doesn’t turn out right the first time and then it takes longer than an hour to achieve the effect I was chasing. Wherever I can I draw from life – an experience I find meditative and delightful. Somedays the drawing doesn’t come easily, somedays the ideas flow and I have so much fun. I am finding doing this everyday there is an opportunity to catch the ideas before the magic floats past and is gone again.

I am so excited by what I am getting out of this discipline.

A reason to return to all the wonderful art books I have invested in and really distill the information they offer.

A huge respect for artists who have mastered this incredible skill and moved on to grow their art.

Check it out at Wondai art gallery 🙂

Below is a lovely article that made it into the North Burnett News

https://www.facebook.com/NorthBurnettNews

The post My last solo exhibition was 25 years ago! first appeared on Amy Wood Artist.

I can sit there in nature and soak it up in ways that are different to just passing through. Sure I get hot and sweaty and always manage to sit in a rocky spot with angry ants.

The light as it shifts, the whisper of the breeze in the eucalypts and against my skin, the smell of the air, the birds that come and go and how they interact with each other and their surrounds, my cows with their nose in my paint. These are my rewards. These beautiful subjects are from my 5 acre home. Favourite haunts that I am privileged to observe often.

Flowers from my garden are another obsession, sometimes I even buy flowers!. I love trying to capture the colour and liveliness. A little pocket of joy preserved to lighten your space 🙂

The post Painting from life in the sun and shade first appeared on Amy Wood Artist.

Follow me on instagram or facebook – Amy Wood Artist if you would like to see my daily drawings 🙂

https://www.facebook.com/p/Amy-Wood-Artist-100092200239326

The post Almost half way through my one year drawing challenge! first appeared on Amy Wood Artist.

Below is a little reel of April’s highlights and I will add my drawings from May as they happen.

Follow along on facebook or instagram at Amy Wood Artist and give me a boost 🙂

https://www.facebook.com/p/Amy-Wood-Artist-100092200239326

The post May-One year drawing challenge first appeared on Amy Wood Artist.

My glaze development followed the same structure – I would decide what ingredients would surely produce the delightful glaze I imagined and proceed to mix a 20 litre bucket of it. So confident was I in my imagination that it shocked me when the resulting glazes turned out to be awful.

Eventually I got sick of having 20 litre buckets of useless glaze and applied myself to testing small amounts.

No one would call my approach today particularly tidy or precise but I do have a book where I write down every damn time I try something new. If I change anything in the kiln I…write….it …..down!

When there is going to be months or years between when I try something that turns out nicely, and when I come back to use it again, I have learned to write……….it ………..down!

I went through a stage of laboriously testing and developing a set of glazes to pour on and layer with. All that effort didn’t really produce what I wanted.

One of my early mentors Paddy Bambling generously shared her glazes (if you are at convention hit me up I am happy to pass them on.)

Today I use 6 favourite glazes collected over time. At least half of which have Paddy’s celadon as their base.

When I knew her Paddy raw glazed (once firing). A process of applying glaze to raw pots at the leather hard stage instead of bisque firing and then glazing.

Initially, I too raw glazed enthusiastically, and couldn’t understand why anyone would put themselves through unpacking and packing a kiln just to bisque.

As a working parent I now bisque – that perfect leather hard stage seems impossible to catch. It is hard to let go of my high clay raw glazes even though I feel they might be limiting the effects I can achieve. I have introduced one clear glaze low in clay from another generous potter Jackie Gasson but I get frustrated when I bump things and it chips off easily. I also stick to minerals I believe to be reliably safe food and slightly less toxic if I get it all over me. I use iron, rutile, talc, tin, zinc and cobalt for inside cups and bowls. Commercially prepared underglazes are great for a bit of colour.

At the moment I am enjoying discovering how to get the best out of my six glazes. Dialing in on exactly what they can do. Thanks to the 3-cone temperature difference in my aged, and well-traveled gas kiln, I am learning what each of my glazes look like at different temps.

it’s amazing how many different effects I can make with six glazes. The bisque ware tolerates the application of more layers of glaze than the leatherhard clay. So I layer glazes in different combinations and I write down what I do. Sometimes I add light glaze decoration in the making stage and bisque that to add more depth.

 A hydrometer is a very useful tool that i have found helps me achieve consistent results. Each time I use my glaze I can make it exactly the same thickness.  I think I got this idea from Janet Deboos at a WBBPA convention but I can’t remember for sure. I have attached a couple of weblinks here to give you an idea how to DIY

https://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Hydrometer

https://ceramicartsnetwork.org/daily/article/Make-Your-Own-Hydrometer-for-Glazing-Success

I would still like to develop the skill of visualizing a glaze and proceeding to test and create it. It is just not where my life is right now!

The post How my approach to glazing has changed over the years first appeared on Amy Wood Artist.

I will start with a little reel snapshot of the best bits of march. Followed by my every day drawings as they happen in April. I am beginning to sneak up on the thing I want most to learn. How to draw PEOPLE. Stay tuned and catch my drawings at Amy Wood Artist on facebook and instagram. links at the bottom of this website.

The post April – One year drawing challenge first appeared on Amy Wood Artist.

The Surat on Ballone art gallery is the venue for a show of work by Kathy Ellem, Catherine Clark Dowden and myself.

It was lovely to spend time and get to know these two artists more. I came home with renewed respect for each of them and what they have achieved. Also new determination to keep working and learning myself.

Kathy compiled some amazing videos of the work we did out there and I am sharing them here cause I love them 🙂 and they tell the story so well.

A really interesting, scary and fun thing we did was a demo at the opening where we all three of us took turns working on 3 paintings. It was actually way out of my comfort zone to paint on top of someone else’s paint. They turned out great though and it was an up close look at individual technique!

Another little highlight was dinner every night with Jennifer and her family – thanks guys :)!

https://www.facebook.com/surat.on.balonne

The post “Connections” friendship, fun and growth first appeared on Amy Wood Artist.

Check out all that I am up to in the next couple of months – follow the above link to my March newsletter.

If you like it subscribe at the bottom of my website home page and get the newsletter straight to your email inbox!

The post 2026 March Newsletter :) first appeared on Amy Wood Artist.

The post A little reel of Februarys drawings first appeared on Amy Wood Artist.

There is no ‘Real’ reason to be doing it

Except that it is making me feel more ‘real’ than anything else – I love it. It centres me – it gives my brain something to do in a way that feels amazing. I am learning and feeling more capable and braver about what I can do 🙂 Here are my drawings for March – you can follow me on facebook or instagram – Amy Wood Artist 🙂

https://www.facebook.com/p/Amy-Wood-Artist-100092200239326

The post Bring on March-drawing everyday-I’ve got this! first appeared on Amy Wood Artist.