Amanda Slade
Contemporary Mixed Media Artist in cornwall
I began my artistic life at art school in the 1980’s studying painting and printed textiles. It was there I 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 my painting process today .
I moved to Cornwall in the far south west of England in 1997 seeking a place of inspiration to bring up my growing family.
I have worked on community art projects that fitted round family life, often finding myself making my own paintings in the wee small hours while the house was sleeping.
My artwork, nowadays, still reflects my love of the wild outdoors and the details I find within the landscape. I always have a little sketchbook and cameraphone with me when I’m out and about , so I can jot down ideas and capture the moment. When the weather is very bad, I can retreat to my studio and use these as starting points.
My work
Using layers of pencil, chalk, found paints and papers my 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 this Atlantic coast.
I love the colours of deep winter and the windblown hawthorn trees; the deepest plum browns of bare fields beneath a greyish lilac sky, the pale straw of bleached grasses and seed heads.
In Spring the lanes and coast paths nearby are fizzing with the froth of blackthorn blossom.
Summer brings the bold blues of agapanthus blooms or bright orange crocosmia flowers seen against an aqua sea .....
It’s the way the colours of the land meet the sky , or where land and sea meet. The joy is in embracing the season and harvesting the moment ."
