Art by Amy Newport

My love of painting derives from being able to capture the essence of my subject in a fleeting moment that might otherwise pass me by. I can look at a scene and commit it to memory but that only lasts so long and soon the sharp edges will fade. However, if I commit that memory to a canvas I can use colour, the way light and shadows fall, the magnitude and beauty of architecture and the how humans inhabit their environment to nail down the fabric of what I see. I can interpret the landscape by taking a slice of it and emphasising what feels to me to be the principal elements. Most of my inspiration is when that moment when society stands together while simultaneously being lost in their own worlds. People are always changing, evolving and continuously adapting to their environment. I imagine the lives they lead, where they are going and why. I absorb the smells, the sounds and use paint to relay the narrative.