Creating is what I am meant to do. It all started when I was very young, drawing and painting
with my father and, although my artist career started late, my business career has been modelled
on creativity: I designed and made
bespoke ball gowns, evening and corporate wear, and, for many years, I worked as an art director
and a creative marketing strategist.
I prefer pastiche painting. I rarely set up a still-life from which to paint, instead, I design
my composition from my imagination and one or two reference sources. This ensures I create an
essence of the light and the subject, providing an opportunity to play with shapes and create
unique effects all without the distraction of detail.
My goal is to make the most of wet-in-wet watercolour painting. For me, this is the most true
watercolour technique; I dont try to control wet in wet washes, I let the natural laws of
watercolour play out. Im very happy to watch the paint settle and dry by itself thus achieving
more
unique, painterly passages of colour. My aim is to design beautiful wet in wet colour blends
that
mysteriously materialise into nothing. I create watercolour washes that contain hidden depths,
inexplicable layers and unexpected details. I love painting light and colour!
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My favourite subject is still-life. For me its not still at all; the activity of a mystery person/s
having left behind a setting of objects used and abused, loved and shared, left in disarray, tells
the story of us - a story of fun, love and laughter.
I also paint many different subjects ranging from nudes and portraits, landscapes, cityscapes,
seascapes and abstract.
Whatever my subject of the time, I spend many hours researching, designing and drawing and use that
research to create several artworks, sometimes over several months. This wide range of subject
matter pushes me to become a better artist.
I am fortunate to have been inspired to use the remarkable medium of watercolour by the work of
Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, George Braque, Gustave Klimt, Juan Gris, Shirley Trevena, Gretchen
Albrecht, Peter McIntyre and many more. More recently, Frank Webb, Rex Brandt, George Post & Ted
Sherwen.
Why Watercolour?
Im completely committed to watercolour, other mediums just dont do it for me so I've spent a lot
time studying watercolour painting and art privately. There are effects that you just simply cannot
get in any other medium; I love the luminosity I can achieve and I love the way I can leave the
pigments to just do their thing I love watching paint dry!!
Recent Honours, Awards & Prizes
2022 WNZ 'SPLASH' Watercolour New Zealand Merit Award
2015 TSB Art in a Day, 1st Prize
2014 AWS 2nd Prize Harvest: Cheese & Onions
2014 MAC 1st Prize Drumming Up Business III
2014 WNZ 3rd Prize Singer & Stripes
2014 PCC Guest Artist
2014 GSAE 1st Prize Sunflowers with Red
2013 AWS 1st Prize Tools of the Trade
2013 BBYC Guest Artist
2013 WNZ 2nd Prize Sukhumvit Stripes
2013 W&N Feature Artist
2012 AWS Merit Baggy Pants Party
Amanda Brett
,
Watermedia Artist, Tutor, Speaker and Author
