My ‘Inspired By’ posts began as a way to explore what makes me tick as an artist, what I’m drawn to, what makes my heart sing, what I might want to try out in terms of marks or colour combinations or compositions. They are also a way for me to share the work of artists whose work I love. I don’t advocate copying other artists instead of making our own work, however inspiring they are to us, but I do believe that we can learn from each other on our solitary artist journeys. This website is dedicated to the philosophy that you have a significant and unique offering inside you, waiting to be released. I created a course to help you with this very thing, which you can find by clicking here. May you be inspired to bring forth what’s within you!

I’ve just spent a happy half hour or so soaking up the work of Amanda Krantz, an Australian artist based in Melbourne.

Amanda combines recognisable imagery with beautiful delicate abstract patterns, adding a gorgeous unreal element to her paintings. Her use of white and bright splashes of colour really brings the paintings to life for me; they have an energy that’s hard to look away from. She emphasizes a lightheartedness and play, embracing ‘mistakes’ and working with what appears.

Of her work, Amanda says:

My practice is underpinned by a playful exploration of materials, where I harness mistakes to create beauty. While I am inspired and motivated by an experimental approach to image making, I consciously steer the imagery towards playful depictions of my surroundings, memories and imaginings. I find inspiration in gardens, through memories and travel, and in unexpected things too, like a friend’s earring or assorted candy.

I frequently find that what inspires me in turn manifests through the act of painting itself, as my methods of painting often result in organic shapes that lend themselves to organisms, and representations of flora and fauna. I deliver the paint in pours, squirts and flicks, employing gravity and using the natural fluidity of paints to mimic the randomness of the natural world.

Each piece is multi-layered, creating depth with levels of sharpness and contrasts in opacity and transparency. I like to play with the focus in a painting by shifting layers, pulling them forward or rubbing them back, playing the layers like faders in a recording studio. Often there are old paintings underneath the new and I like to leave windows on the surface layers, peering to the old underneath.  I think of this technique as reverse collage and this thinking also inspires me to experiment with resin and collage, the results of which are strongly evident in my current work.

Perhaps I am partly drawn by the mirroring of my own way of working; the layering, the building on top of old paintings, the use of happy accidents to create something new and the white that brings the work to life, subtly hiding some areas, hinting at others and allowing the colours to really sing.