Los Angeles based painter Amanda Norman is an award-winning visual artist whose animated still lifes and seductively textured landscapes, are showcased in private collections and galleries throughout the country.
Sought out by interior designers, art collectors and celebrities, Norman's work balances a whimsical stroke with traditional subjects, bringing with it a fresh and lighthearted approach to fine art.
When asked about the surface quality of her work, Norman jokes that her still life paintings are like excavation projects. "More likely than not, there are probably a couple of other paintings under any one finished piece. If you look closely you can usually see elements from the previous works poking through to the surface. I feel these imperfections give each painting a history—kind of like a scar with a story or a quirky birthmark."
Along with the success of her still life and abstract landscape paintings, Amanda has received generous praise for her pet portraits and has been featured in various publications.
"I think that as much as I try to perfectly capture each individual pet, I like to keep them loose and whimsical to a certain extent so that the portraits never seem too stuffy or stale; I want them to have a sense of life. I try to focus on each pet’s unique, lifelike intricacies—the curl of a lip, a droopy eye, a wiry hair with a mind of its own—and highlight those one-of-a-kind quirks."
Norman is the recipient of numerous awards and recognitions, including Local Color Gallery's Top Seller for 2005 and the 2004 Weston Award for excellence in Visual Art. Amanda is an honors graduate from Brown University and has received additional training from The New School for Design in New York City and RISD's Pont Aven School of Art in France.