Amanda Watt is a Northern Irish artist born in 1960, recognized for her vibrant and expressive paintings that combine elements from cubism, expressionism, and primitivism. She studied at the Belfast College of Art and Design, where she graduated with a BA in 1982. Her formative years in Belfast laid the foundation for her practice rooted, in bold expression, vibrant colour, and emotional authenticity. Shortly after graduating, Watt moved to the bustling London art scene. After three years, her career took a pivotal turn when a collector offered her the opportunity to relocate to Los Angeles, a move that would shape the next two decades of her life and work. In California, Watt established a successful practice, regularly exhibiting at Timothy Yarger Fine Art in Beverly Hills and the Bowles/Sorokko Galleries in San Francisco and New York. Her bold compositions and unmistakable aesthetic drew critical and commercial attention.

By 2006, however, the intensity and demand of the art world had taken a toll. Watt moved to Florida, seeking solace and respite. Like many artists of her generation, she faced personal struggles, including a period of addiction, but within this adversity began a transformation. Gradually, she reconnected with her creative self, turning her art into a source of healing. In 2015, she returned to Northern Ireland, embarking on a renewed artistic journey.

Watt’s paintings blend structured form with raw emotion, producing works that are both architectonic and deeply human. Her figures and interiors are stylized yet spontaneous, imbued with rhythm and joy. Her artistic vocabulary draws from a rich lineage: he patterned surfaces of Gustav Klimt, the crisp stylization of Alex Katz, the flat yet expressive depth of Japanese woodblock prints, the sensuality of Gauguin’s Tahitian women, and the Mediterranean light of David Hockney and Matisse. Her art is timeless, playful, and full of vitality. Watt favours acrylic paint, which allows for fast and spontaneous gestures. Transparent washes precede bold primary colours to create depth and vibrancy. Multiple motifs, all drawn from memory or imagination, are scattered throughout her work: highly stylized furniture; a picture within a picture; a torso – fragmented parts that, on their own, don’t necessarily make sense, carefully placed to create a balanced whole.

Watt has received several awards, including the Artist of Promise at the Belfast College of Art & Design in 1982 and an Artist Residency at Sauveterre, France in 2025.

Watt has been interviewed and featured in numerous recent publications, including Visual Art Ireland (2024), Art Plugged (2022), FAD Magazine (2022), Artlyst (2022), The Steeple Times (2022), Vouz Magazine (2020) and Integrity Magazine (2020).

Watt’s work is already in several prestigious public collections, including the Rugby Art Gallery and Museum (Rugby, UK), the Whitworth Art Gallery (Manchester, UK), the British Museum (London, UK), the Contemporary Art Society (London, UK), the National Museum of Women in the Arts (Washington, DC), the Women’s Museum of California (San Diego, CA), and the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens (Greece). Her work is also held by distinguished private collectors such as Steve Wynn (casino mogul), Barry Levinson (film director), Mary Robinson (former President of Ireland), Vanessa Branson (founder of the Marrakech Biennale and Global Culture Ambassador), and Marla Ginsburg (television producer), and major international collectors, including George Economou, Elie Kouri, and Dakis Joannou. In addition, her paintings have been acquired by prominent corporate collections, among them Arco (Los Angeles, CA) Allied Irish Bank (Dublin, Ireland) and Nagi Group (Tokyo, Japan).

Her work has also been regularly featured for years in solo and group exhibitions over the years.

Selected Shows:

● 2026 (Upcoming)

An exhibition is scheduled in May at Serpentine Galleries, London, UK (Solo Show)

● 2025

“76th Annual Summer Exhibition”, Chelsea Art Society, London, UK (Group Show)

“Beer Mats for Balls”, Testicular Cancer Awareness Charity, London, UK (Group Show)

● 2024

“Peaks & Valleys: The Return”, St. Patrick’s Centre, Downpatrick, UK (Solo Show)

“Society of Women Artists - 163th Annual Open Exhibition”, Mall Galleries, London, UK (Group Show)

● 2023

“Solace”, K. Nichols Contemporary at Century Club, London, UK (Solo Show)

“74th Annual Summer Exhibition”, Chelsea Art Society, London, UK (Group Show)

● 2022

“Christmas Group Exhibition”, Gormleys Gallery, Belfast & Dublin, UK (Group Show)

“Release”, Varvara Roza Galleries and K. Nichols Contemporary at Gallery Eight, London, UK (Solo Show)

“Society of Women Artists – 161st Annual Open Exhibition”, Mall Galleries, London, UK (Group Show)

“73th Annual Summer Exhibition”, Chelsea Art

Society, London, UK (Group Show)

● 2021

“Society of Women Artists – 160th Annual Open Exhibition”, Online Exhibition (Group Show)

● 2020

“Art on a Postcard”, Fundraising Auction at AllBright Club, London, UK, (Group Show)

● 2019

“Inspired by Picasso”, Elizabeth James Gallery, London, UK (Group Show)

The offered painting is part of Watt’s “Release” series, her most important body of work, begun in 2019 and first presented in 2022 at Gallery Eight by Varvara Roza Galleries and K. Nichols Contemporary—her first major UK solo show in nearly four decades. For Watt, Release was more than a series; it marked an act of renewal. After years of personal struggle and isolation, she returned to the studio with fearless instinct, creating bold, bright, and emotionally charged works that combine interiors, landscapes, and depictions of the female form. Created since her return to Northern Ireland after nearly thirty years in the U.S., these works carry a heightened sensitivity and freedom of expression. Inspired by her life in California, Florida, and her homecoming to Ireland, Release stands as an outpouring of energy and imagination—cinematic in scope and intuitive in execution.

Hockney’s View, the work offered here, evokes the 1980s Los Angeles–era paintings of David Hockney, playing with perspective and vibrant use of colour. Hockney’s View doesn’t merely mimic Hockney’s aesthetics—it enters into dialogue with them. Watt transforms his visual language into her own: more angular, less serene, but equally seductive. The result is a layered meditation on artistic inheritance and a sense of place.

What makes the “Release” series particularly important in the context of contemporary painting is its female authorship. Watt does not mediate her emotional experiences through theory or politics; instead, she communicates them directly—intuitive, unfiltered, and raw. These works emerge from a woman who has lived fully, loved deeply, endured quietly, and is now, at last, speaking aloud.