ABOUT
Amanda O’Bryan is an award-winning designer, artist, illustrator, and author with 20+ years of experience in the creative industries. Through her art, workshops, coaching, and her book ‘Daily Acts Of Creativity’, she encourages individuals from all walks of life to embrace creativity as part of their daily lives.
Amanda brings to her work an educational background in visual arts and design from the University of Newcastle, training at the Creative Education Foundation in New York, and a continuing study into the therapeutic benefits of creativity for wellbeing through the healing power and flowers and nature.
Early in her creative career, Amanda made a name for herself designing bespoke ranges of fabric, children’s furniture, and accessories. She achieved success with her Big Top Play Tent which was featured on Better Homes and Gardens TV and sold Australia-wide. Additionally, Amanda’s talents extend to singing and songwriting – she has written songs that have been recorded by other musicians as well as for ABC TV’s, The Saddle Club. Her passion for music culminated in the release of her own CD ‘FreeWheelin’ in 2011.
Having founded a Sydney-based brand, graphic and web design studio and successfully collaborated with a broad range of clients, from high-profile entrepreneurs and businesses to government and community sector organisations, she continues to remain at the forefront of her field of design, concentrating on licensing, selling creating original designs for brands and businesses.
A recent project, a book aimed at promoting the benefits of creativity for wellbeing was completed after undergoing Ovarian Cancer treatment and highlights Amanda’s strong dedication to helping others lead more fulfilled lives through creativity.
In 2018 Amanda returned to the Hunter region, to reaffirm her commitment to artistic self-expression. Guided by formal mentorship at the Newcastle Art Space, Atelier and selected for the prestigious 2022 Newcastle Art Space Mentor Program alongside the internationally acclaimed illustrator and author, Liz Annelli, over the past five years, Amanda has focused on her developing art practice.
Recognised twice as a finalist in the Hunter Emerging Artist prize and claiming the ‘Packers Prize’ in 2018, Amanda’s work is collected through exhibitions and sought-after private commissions. Notably, she engages with community groups, schools, and private businesses, collaborating to design, paint, and facilitate mural projects that not only beautify spaces but also contribute to the vibrancy of the communities she serves.
Beyond her canvas, Amanda facilitates inspiring creativity and painting workshops, alongside illustration and design commissions.
ARTIST STATEMENT
At the heart of Amanda’s artistic practice lies the delicate dance between drawing and painting in watercolour and acrylic. Her artistic practice combines, watercolour floral portraits on paper and floral abstractions on canvas that encapsulate the spirit and beauty of flowers as an expression of creative love.
On canvas, botanical motifs are foundations into abstraction, color and form undergo a process of deconstruction, diverging from the conventional norms of her botanical and floral illustration portraits on paper.
Employing a technique involving layering raw canvas with washes and glazes, akin to watercolor, the work unveils an intertwined history, an essence of the subject in spontaneous mark-making.
This process imparts a sense of fluidity to form, transcending the confines of traditional, meticulously controlled botanical illustrations that also serve as her observation studies. The outcome is a collection of organic, poetic abstracts that encapsulate the spirit and beauty of flowers, liberated from representational constraints.
A recent artistic evolution deepened Amanda’s connection to the raw canvas, responding to her immediate natural environment. Using non-toxic, organic paints and pigments, she creates large hanging drapes with marks made from naturally found foliage and reeds, sourced from the banks of the Hunter River—transforming her art into immersive, sustainability-inspired, nature-infused pieces that evoke the spirit of the natural world.
This process imparts a sense of fluidity to form, transcending the confines of traditional, meticulously controlled botanical illustrations that also serve as her observation studies. The outcome is a collection of organic, poetic abstracts that encapsulate the spirit and beauty of flowers, liberated from representational constraints.
A recent artistic evolution deepened Amanda’s connection to the raw canvas, responding to her immediate natural environment. Using non-toxic, organic paints and pigments, she creates large hanging drapes with marks made from naturally found foliage and reeds, sourced from the banks of the Hunter River—transforming her art into immersive, sustainability-inspired, nature-infused pieces that evoke the spirit of the natural world.
ARTIST CV
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
June 2023 Solo Exhibition Meadow, Leda Gallery, Newcastle
May 2022 Solo Exhibition Aqueous, The Owens Collective, Newcastle
May 2021 Solo exhibition Unfurl Owens Collective, Online due to COVID
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
December 2023, Summer Salon, Straitjacket, Newcastle
October 2023, Realm, The Owens Collective, Islington
October 2023, Tell Me A Story, Raven Gallery, Maitland
October 2023, IF Festival, Maitland
September 2023, Art For Arts Sake, Raven Gallery, Maitland
March 2023 , The After, Art Systems Wickham
December 2022, Gifted, Newcastle Art Space
June 2022, The Build Up, Newcastle Art Space
December 2021, This Is It, Newcastle ArtSpace
March 2019, Newcastle Show Prize
August 2020, Willful, The Owens Collective, Newcastle
December 2020, Small Works Boltspace, Maitland
October 2020, Inaugural Hunter Valley Art Fair, Pokolbin NSW
November 2020, Newcastle Foundation Prize Finalist ArtSpace
November 2020, Cessnock Art Gallery Members Show
November 2019, Hunter Valley Grammar Art Show
June 2019 Port Stephens Art Prize
March 2019 Newcastle Show Prize
AWARDS & PRIZES
2020 Finalist Newcastle Emerging Artist Prize
2021 – 2022 Selected Mentee Newcastle Art Space 2022 Mentorship program
2019 Finalist Newcastle Foundation Prize Newcastle ArtSpace
2018 Finalist Newcastle Emerging Artist Prize, winner of the ‘Packers Prize’
2016 Scholarship Creative Education Foundation SUNY, Buffalo, New York
2015 Winner Creative Industries Award, Blue Mountains Business Awards
2014 Silver Medal International Creative Summit Awards
2011 Finalist Crochet Art prize, Blue Mountains
PUBLIC PROJECTS
2020 – 2023 Co-Founder Newcastle Artists’ Collective
2023 Mural Maitland Public School Year 6, Major Mural Project
2023 Public Art Easel’d Art Activation Project, City of Newcastle
2023 Public Art Artful Intersection Project, Maitland City Council/NSW Gov 2023 Digital Mural Artful Intersection, Art Licensing, Maitland City Council
2022 Mural Maitland Public School Year 6, Major Mural Project
2022 Mural Singleton Family Support Reclaim Major Mural Project
2020 Mural Lorn Rose Farm Major Mural Project
AVAILABLE ORIGINAL ARTWORK
All art is signed and dated on reverse. Additional images are available on request for more detailed viewing of the art and exact colour representation.
Framing options are available. National and international shipping is arranged before purchase via email. Local delivery in the Hunter Valley is arranged FOC.
Please visit Exhibition Highlights for the a full catalogue of works.
Pom Poms
72cm x 87cm | Acrylic, graphite, watercolour ink, colour pencil on raw canvas $1200
Vanilla Orchid
91cm x 116cm | Acrylic, watercolour ink, colour pencil, pastel on raw canvas $1400
Cottonheads
92cm x 110cm | Acrylic, graphite, watercolour ink, colour pencil, on raw canvas $1400
Spinifex
46cm x 56cm | Acrylic, watercolour ink, colour pencil on raw canvas $500
Honeypot
71cm x 66cm | Acrylic, graphite, watercolour ink, colour pencil on raw canvas $900
Lambswool
71cm x 66cm | Acrylic, graphite, watercolour ink, colour pencil on raw canvas $900
Featherheads (Framed)
46cm x 56cm | Acrylic, watercolour ink, colour pencil on raw canvas $680 | Framed in Oak
LIVING THINGS
812 x 812mm Acrylic, crayon and charcoal on raw canvas $900
Everything Grows In Water
812 x 812mm Acrylic, crayon and charcoal on raw canvas $900