Brett, Amanda

Address: Pakuranga, Auckland, New Zealand
Phone: Mobile 0064 (0)272822872|Landline 0064 (0)95768393
Website: www.amandabrett.net

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 don’t try to control wet in wet washes, I let the natural laws of watercolour play out. I’m 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!

My favourite subject is still-life. For me it’s 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?
I’m completely committed to watercolour, other mediums just don’t 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

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