Amanda Smart creates paintings to live with—works that bring colour and personality into a space, invite curiosity and become part of the everyday.

Based in Waikanae on the Kāpiti Coast, Amanda describes her practice as a space where movement, memory and mark-making intersect.

Her semi-abstract paintings explore pattern, contrast and colour through familiar shapes and unexpected combinations. An initial sense of energy is balanced by quieter details that gradually reveal themselves through close observation.

A vase might suggest a character, a curve recall a landscape or a particular colour awaken a memory. Rather than prescribing a single interpretation, Amanda leaves room for viewers to discover their own associations within each work.

Working primarily in acrylic, she experiments with layered colour, texture and a variety of paint effects. Some compositions are playful and energetic, while others carry an almost luminous quality.

Amanda’s background in Visual Communication Design brings structure, proportion and balance to her work. Within that framework, the painting process remains open to intuition, experimentation and surprise.

Inspiration comes from native bush, coastal memories, bioluminescent sea life and vintage objets d’art. She is particularly drawn to the histories, personalities and emotional connections held within everyday objects.

Amanda’s paintings reward repeated looking—offering colour and impact from across a room while revealing something new each time the viewer moves closer.

Because the works we live with can continue to surprise us long after they are first discovered.