Author: Amanda

Amanda Milke is a mixed media artist who draws her inspiration from her life and faith. She has developed a distinct style of abstract perspective that creates strong bold compositions using a variety of materials along with bright colors and rich textures. She has exhibited her work around Alberta and has sold her paintings to collectors around the world. She is the President for the Society of Fort Saskatchewan Artists and teaches Art classes out of her home art studio.

Creative Overdrive

by Amanda, posted in 2016 Artwork, Abstract, acrylic, Art, Art Classes, Art Exhibit, Art Submissions, Christian Themes, Color Exploration, Etsy Shop, Fort Saskatchewan, Hand Stamped Designs, Home Studio, Jewelry

As I shared with you last time I’ve been working away on some Mixed media pieces lately.

Currently I have 15+ paintings on the go in prep for some Art Submissions as well as 2 or more gallery exhibits coming up in 2017. 

Busy busy. On top of all the art I’m also increasingly busy as I enter into the Christmas order rush with my hand stamped jewelry business. 

For those that don’t know I own Amanda Milke Art and Jewelry Studio so my hands are always working on something. This fall has been a steady mix of Painting, Teaching art classes and Metal stamping orders. Now I enter in to my peak season and starting mid November I’ll be adding Christmas markets into the mix as I set up my booth as a vendor.

Thus why I am trying to get a bunch done now before I hit my chaos zone.

Here’s  a look at the studio and some of the pieces I’m in progress of.

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Well back to it… I still have a mixed media workshop to prep and teach this weekend 😉

May your creative Muse be kind allowing you to create something beautiful.

Cheers,

A

Create & Teach

by Amanda, posted in 2016 Artwork, Abstract, acrylic, Art Classes, canada, Christmas, Mixed Media Paintings, SALE/CLEARANCE

Let’s ignore the fact that I haven’t posted for awhile….

I’ve been fairly busy on a teaching and creating kick must be that new hand 😉

This is one of my newest classes and artistic endeavors. I’ve been on a 3D Mixed media kick lately. I’ll be offering it again in 2017.

So here let me flood you with some pictures of what I’ve been doing these last months. The advertised piece is complete and the rest are one layer away from being finished.

I seem to be in good standing with my artist muses as of late so pardon me while I get back to it 😉

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If you’re in the Fort Saskatchewan / Edmonton Alberta area and want to give the gift of ART to that creative person in your life I have a promo going on.

Shoot me a msg on my Facebook page to take advantage of this gem of a deal 🎨

Cheers 

May your days & nights be creative 🖌

A

Life of a one handed artist

by Amanda, posted in Uncategorized

So tomorrow I get to have my stitches removed that’ll be nice

wp-image-1630016438jpg.jpg but I still have another 2 weeks before I can do much more than wiggle my fingers. I’m supposed to avoid repeatative motions as basic as using a computer mouse and avoid lifting anything over half a pound needless to say my left hand has been getting a work out.

But the boredom of “being good” and following doctors orders is driving me mad. Seriously, go a day and try not to use your dominant hand…it sucks.

So today I HAD TO sneak off to the studio and get in some me time while the kids were occupied and my mother in law cleaned up the kitchen  (<—perk)

I wanted to paint but obviously paint brush was off limits and I didn’t want to make something that obviously looked like I used my weak hand so I opted for a fluid painting.

I went with a rich berry color palette to soothe my craving and added in some iridescent and gold highlights. Here are some in progress build up shots.

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Here is a look at the end result as it sits to dry. I will finalize it later but so far I’m pretty happy with how it’s turned out. Plus it’s taken the edge off my creative withdrawal 😉

Cheers for now

A

On Sabbatical sort of…

by Amanda, posted in Uncategorized

Well I’ve been absolutely swamped this year with tons of hand stamped orders and have also been busy teaching some Abstract acrylic art classes as well as some abstract pallet paint nights but now is the time for a “break”.

I truly wish I could say I was doing something exciting during these lovely summer months but I’m not. 

What’s the reason for the  break?

Hand surgery…not very exciting but necessary. One of the down sides about being an artist is the extent to which my hands take abuse. I have severe carpal tunnel in both my hands and have been delaying the surgery for 4 years now. I have 2 good excuses though one is called Zoë and the other is Prudence haha. Everytime my surgery came up I found myself pregnant so it got pushed back twice, now that the girls are older I decided I better get it done before I have too much permanent damage.

So this happened yesterday 

Lovely.

So now I have 6 to 8 weeks before I can resume creating assuming things go smoothly. 

The first 2 weeks I’m not allowed to do anything except wiggle my fingers….I’m not one to sit idly by in fact I may go crazy…which is why I am painstakingly left hand typing this blog entry not that you all aren’t worth the effort but because it’s day 2 and I’m already that bored! (I also left handed baked a lemon blueberry oatmeal sweet bread earlier today….)

Tomorrow I get to take the packing off to see how badly they butchered me so that should kill some time…maybe!?!

So ya if you have some one handed ways to pass the time I’m all ears…save me lol

Cheers,

A