This work is part of Amanda Schunker’s 2024 exhibition, The Song of Increase.

This work draws on parallels with the most joyful of sounds produced by a colony of bees working together, amplifying their vibrations into an audible hum. Amanda poses the questions, “is this possible for humans also? How do we find ways to raise our vibration, particularly if we find ourselves in the depths of grief and despair? Is it possible to do so collectively? Where do we return to, where time stands still?”

Says Amanda of her work: “I find myself traversing the landscape time and time again, finding solace within the magnitude of rock formations. These ancient forms dwarf any reticence. I paint en plein air, melding the nuances and intricacies before me, with a sense of immediacy and an uninhibited response. In the studio, colour becomes a catalyst for an increased emotive state. The collision of mark-making, adding and subtracting, triggers memory; a new porthole opens.

“Through my abstract paintings, I hope to transcend the viewer to another realm, probing their own internal landscape.”