AMANDA C. SWEET
In the numerous layers of paint—fundamental to the gradual process through which her striking, abstract works arrive—Amanda C. Sweet sees the local Northwest currents in twilight hues, swirling and building on the canvas. Each uniquely controlled application of sprayed water-based paint encourages surprise forms and suggestive new depths to come into view, as the artist waits to capture the elements in perfect balance.
Her series draw inspiration from encounters with nature in tidepools, where a typically unseen, microscopic world churns with vibrant life and activity. Often vivid colors, emotive gestures, and disorienting spatial relationships are presented on square canvases, and sometimes exaggerated—a reminder of nature’s extreme dynamics on display in tidal miniature.
Sweet’s practice incorporates traditional masking techniques and modern tools as well as those of her own design. In Waxing Moon, reorienting the canvases became key to finding their most satisfying state, and in some cases, allowed diptychs to form between previously unrelated pieces. By welcoming such chance developments to inform the works as their gradients form, she achieves outcomes which feel deeply personal yet connected to an organic continuum familiar to us all.
Education
University of Washington, Seattle, WA:
Master of Fine Arts in Painting + Drawing
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, RI:
Bachelor of Fine Arts in Painting
Winthrop University, Rock Hill, SC
Governor’s School for the Arts & Humanities, SC
Artists Studied Under
Michael Brodeur
David Brody
Ann Gale
Philip Govedare
Holly Hughes
Denzil Hurley
Mary Jones
Zhi Lin
Helen O'Tolle
Duane Slick
Collections
The University of Washington
Body of Work
2013-16: Works on Paper I (available)
2018: Works on Paper II (available)
2018-24: Fugue (available)
2019-20: Works on Paper III (available)
2019-20: Wrack (available)
2019-20: Undertow (available)
2020: Sublunar (available)
2020-current: Low Tide (available)
2021: Works on Paper IV (available)
2021-current: Tidal (sold out)
2021-current: Currents (available)
2022-current: Works on Paper V (available)
2022: Brushstrokes (available)
2023-current: Waxing Moon (available)