Amanda Houchen

Amanda Houchen is a self-taught artist, specialising in contemporary oil painting and based at V22 studios Bermondsey. Her work aims to evoke emotion through a heightened sense of colour and shape. The portraits are done in a slightly childlike style, conveying an exaggerated state of awareness and the sensory experience of just looking. 

The work includes text, as a child would label their pictures, deliberately drawing the viewer's attention towards certain details. These pieces are designed above all to be fun and fulfilling; creating positive feelings through bright colours and patterns, so appealing to people on an instinctive level. She is drawn to capture the particular mood of a moment and there is often an undercurrent of suspense and mystery to each piece.

They have a stylised and tactile quality to them that is inspired largely by graphic design. Working mainly from her own photographs; she is influenced by the glamour and contrived composition of fashion photography. Her focus is to create original paintings; fusing figurative and abstract elements to form a contemporary style.