Ever since the very first artist placed a brush onto a canvas, it seems as if painting the everyday objects that surround us is a natural act to draw in an audience. For some artists, such as New York-based painter Amanda Baldwin, investing attention towards creating still life artworks just felt natural, like the many artists over centuries who came before her.
Even though many of the objects of still lifes – the fruit bowls, tables and chairs housed within frames – catch the eye of the viewer in being relatable, for Amanda the medium presents the “constant reformulation and reflection of society”, she tells It’s Nice That. It’s a subject she’s personally interested in exploring, “as well as adding to that ever-evolving narrative” too.
Amanda has “always loved making art” but over the years, particularly since studying at Virginia Commonwealth University, “painting has been the main medium I have stuck with”, the artist tells us. Working with oil and acrylic on canvas, her chosen materials appear to play as much a part in her painting’s expressive outcome as her chosen subjects: “The longevity of oil as a medium allows me to layer paint and play with transparency as well as blend in a more controlled way that acrylic can’t really do,” she points out.
