Who are you?
My name is Amanda Tye and I work full time as an artist in Sydney Australia. I am best known for my modern landscape paintings.

How do you work?
I explore my subject matter, mainly natural landscape, during different times of the day and under various weather conditions. I avoid places when people are present and I photograph everything. I then draw straight onto the canvas or board using mainly charcoal and explore the composition using washes. OiIs are my medium of choice as my process results in a lot of push and pull to work out the final composition. I am quite impatient and I like to work quickly and on a large scale as this suits my energy levels.

Why do you do what you do?
After perusing several different creative careers over the past 20 years, painting full time is where I feel most authentic. I am continually striving to create better work and I am addicted to the process.

What’s your work-day like?
Going for an early walk with my dog is the best start to my day and I like to be at my studio before 9am when the light is bright. Coffee then music and I sit in my cane chair to find my bearings. I then tend to move straight onto painting and work all day until about 4pm when the light starts to warm. I use music to keep my energy high.

Describe the space where you create?
My studio is about 15mins from my home on the Northern Beaches of Sydney. It is a large garage with high ceilings and is tucked at the end of a cul-de-sac in the bush. I have a snake in the roof, regular visits from bush turkeys and a family of kookaburras that live in the huge gum trees that surround the property. The down side is it leaks and funnel webs appear now and then, but that’s Australia for you!

How has your practice changed over time?
In my early paintings I only ever used a palette knife and oil paint and rarely drew on the surface, I often used strong colour and thick impasto . After getting sick I eliminated toxins out of my environment, which lead me to work with acrylics for about 5 years and this is when paint brushes and drawing mediums crept onto the scene, these works were more detailed and subtle in nature. More recently I have switched back to using predominantly oil paint and brushes. I have always photographed my subject matter and then worked straight onto the support.

How have you developed your career?
I studied Fine Arts majoring in sculpture at UNSW COFA. Then after working for Wellbeing Magazine and as a portrait photographer, and while bringing up a young family I went back to study a BA Art Education. I had a career for 15 years as a Secondary School Visual Arts Teacher, where I taught in a part-time position, Photography & digital media, Visual Design and Visual Arts at a selective high school in Sydney. I continued to practice my artmaking, completing commissions, exhibiting and entering competitions. I left my teaching position to pursue painting full time in 2017.

I have been a finalist in the Southern Buoy Landscape Prize 2020, Glover Art Prize 2019, The Fleurieu Art Prize 2018, Mosman Art Prize 2015, and twice winner of the People’s Choice Warringah Art Prize (Northern Beaches Art Prize). I have had solo shows at Thienny Lee Gallery, Edgecliff and Sydney Road Gallery, Balgowlah and exhbitied in many group shows across Australia.
What themes does your art pursue?Escapism is something I was always searching for and the quiet natural Australian landscape, offered this plane to dive into. I found that using ruled lines and breaking the composition down into geometric shapes gave me a way to bring order to a life that felt out of control.

However, since leaving teaching and moving to live in a quiet environment, my life now ticks to the pace that feels true - I no longer feel the need to escape. The Australian natural landscape is my immediate reality, itis all around me and my art is an extension of my experiences, my language and now my obsession. I am excited to see what my next body of work explores and if my style changes now I now longer need to escape the stresses of city life.

Describe a real-life situation that inspired you?
My latest series of work “Still Water Runs Deep” was inspired by a sailing trip on the Hawkesbury River, late 2019. During this time the fires burnt out of control and after
an experience of nearly losing my childhood home to bush fires, it triggered a deep primal terror in me. I explored the contradiction of being surrounded by absolute peace and having the most beautiful, still and tranquil environment directly in front of me, yet at the same time I was riddled with fear and anxiety by fires that burnt more than 100km away.

What’s your favourite artwork?
I love so so many artworks, I can’t give you just one, and like the saying goes “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” I think it’s the same with art…. When I viewed Brett Whiteleys’ large 18 panel work ‘Alchemy” was a pretty inspiring moment. The other was exploring Rodins sculpture garden in Paris and finally going to the Biennale of Sydney with a group of year 11 students on Cockatoo island experiencing installations by Mike Parrs and William Kentridge… but the list goes on!

What jobs have you done other than being an artist?
I worked as Assistant manager and make-up artist for The Body Shop, as a nanny, in sales for Wellbeing Magazine, a book illustrator, as a portrait photographer and school photographer, and finally a high school visual arts and photography teacher for 15 years

Favourite or most inspirational place?
Kings canyon and Devils marbles viewed at dawn

What’s your musical playlist while practicing art?
Which tunes inspire you?
I rarely paint without music. My spotify list has hundreds of songs but I tend to choose based on my mood. Most of the time I use music to increase my energy and love dance and hip hop… right this second I’m listening to Make luv- live by room 5.

Which artists do you collect?
I have a small collection including a Ben Waters painting a Sarah Montgomery etching and I did an art swap with Fiona Chandler.

What is the Sydney Road Gallery Experience for you?
Sydney Road Gallery is all about community and having friends that are artists too. Without it I would be alone in a studio all day everyday. The gallery has also pushed me to try new things in my practice such as still life and black and white, and it gives me great opportunities to exhibit my work along side other artists and to have solo shows.