Amanda Richens Smith

Today I have chosen to highlight Amanda’s work and submission for Drawing 1 Assignment four. I was impressed by vast amount of work and diversity of materials that was submitted this time. Her research has really helped to push her work in directions that she did not foresee.

Amanda has stated that: “This part of the course has been my favourite, I was really looking forward to undertaking it and have enjoyed doing the exercises. I think it is evident by her submission that she has enjoyed every moment!
In the drawing above she states: “I pass this pond frequently when I’m taking my husband to work and it catches my eye every time. I’ve been itching to draw it for ages and finally got round to doing it. There are many more trees surrounding the pond but I’ve excluded them to focus on one tree and the shapes its major branches make and its reflection in the still water. The shapes the lower branches make are particularly nice. I’m reminded of a quote of Ranier Maria Rilke’s in Gaston Bachelard’s The Poetics of Space – “These trees are magnificent, but even more magnificent is the sublime and moving space between them, as though with their growth it too increased” (Pg.210.) “It reminds me of the value of negative space in defining the form”. Bachelard, G (1969) The Poetics of Space Boston: Beacon Press

Above: Amanda submitted a work here from a selection of an ordinance survey map of Scotland, the medium used here was – ink on paper applied with a branch. I thought it was interesting that following a period of working from nature she decided to then use a part of that tree to draw her husband.
Prior to making these drawings she spent several months attending local life drawing classes and making some strong observations from life. These other works are on her blog.

Here Amanda has stated: that this work was made in tribute to her husband “We both read a lot, and recently he has been digitizing a favourite book so that he can read it on his tablet.  This involved buying a cheap copy, sawing the spine off and scanning it in. The support is the leaves of the cheap copy and the book he is reading is his original copy.  I thought this suited my husband’s personality the most and used this for the final piece”.
This work is inventive and creative, and it is fascinating to see the work go beyond the border and see these lines travel across the surface, much like the branches of the tree in figure 1.

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