The first time I met Amanda was when I pulled up outside her door, a couple of floors up in an industrial complex on the Northern Beaches of Sydney. Whilst we have professional crossovers from our pasts (hers as a film maker and mine as photographer) the day I visited her home was the first time we met in real life. She is as thoughtful and joyful and creative as her work implies. A radiance that draws people in. It has been a year since Amanda has gone “all in” on her path as an artist - which was a natural response to the demand for larger scale versions of words and works from her book, 'Diary of a Freelancer' published in 2021 - a series of musings from her real life journal. When I ask if she thinks this is a detour or a new path for her life she says it’s “more like a wave, and I’m just riding it until it’s played out."
28th June 2024, Sydneys Northern Beaches
We started the day talking around the kitchen bench of her studio/warehouse apartment where she lives and creates from - an industrial and practical space with all the thoughtful touches like hand picked glassware and ceramics, cosy linens, thoughtful books, repurposed furniture, a vintage green bath and (of course) art. With tea in hand and the playlist made just right for chatting we migrate to the couch where we got so lost in conversation we almost lost the light. I wanted to find out about what 'A day in the life of an artist' looks like so let's start from the beginning...
Mornings
First things you do when you wake up:
My favourite time to wake up is first light, just before the sun reaches the horizon. I will drink my coffee in bed and watch the sky change. It’s early, but very slow. I practise ‘morning pages’ from the artist's way, but usually only half a page or so, sometimes just a couple of sentences.
From there every morning is different. I might start painting, or clean the house or do emails or exercise or some combo of these. Kristian is clockwork, makes coffee, goes to gym, cooks breakfast, starts work. I am water, swirling around his rhythm.
Do you "get ready" before you start your day wfh?
I kind of love rolling out of bed and starting work in my pajamas for a few hours as I wake up and then exercising and showering. It gives the feeling of a second ‘start to the day’.
I have to ask about your hair, it is iconic - are there any particular secrets in your hair care routine or are you just blessed with good curls?
Haha it has its own persona for sure. I keep it pretty simple. Washing it can be a marathon, this is when it gets ‘tamed’. This involves a lot of brushing and plaiting. Once it’s set by the plaits, I do barely anything between washes. A little bit of coconut oil if needed. In summer I barely wash it all, just let the salt water do it’s daily cleanse. There’s no better curls than the ocean can give.
And how about any skin?
A client of ours Strange Bird NYC makes an other worldly series of face scrub, oil, serum and moisturiser that I use daily. It’s incredibly clean and nutrient dense. Heavenly.
Do you have a working uniform or outfit...does it change if you're painting?
I do like a uniform. When I started painting more regularly I went to salvos and bought a bunch of oversized mens business shirts to rotate as paint shirts.
But honestly, the percentage of my wardrobe with paint on it is steadily rising. If anything it makes me like the clothes more. I am finding I like everything entwined, life, work, painting, events. Long before I was painting for a living I would call my style ‘bizleisure’, clothes I can wear to work or bed.
Working/art/business
Are you a lists girl? If so paper or digital.
A: All the lists, paper and digital and mental and emotional.
Any other things that help with organisation/task management?
Do you ever not feel like painting? What kinds of things get you in the zone/flow?
I have learnt not to paint when I am sad or angry, it translates into the painting. Isn't that interesting, that my mood would show up in the paint. I need to wait for calm and happy to make work that I proud of. I’m really only interested in putting love and fun into my work. I’m not the kind of artist who can process her pain publicly, that’s between me and my journal.
Do you paint with music, podcasts, silence?
Sometimes I need the music to get in a rhythm and sometimes I need silence to listen.
Painting and creating is just the beginning, then there's the commerce side of it and I imagine there's quite a lot to do given you sell from your own website and socials (which I think is quite amazing) - do you work from computer or your phone or both?
There’s so much of business you can run on your phone these days it’s unbelievable. I used to have really strong boundaries of only doing work on my desktop, but lately I’m sort of celebrating the ‘biz on the move’ efficiencies.
Do you make all your own content? Has it got any structure or is quite free flowing?
What parts of life/business do you outsource?
Evenings
Who cooks dinner and what’s a typical midweek meal like for you two?
What do you do to wind down?
Bonus q’s
What are you longing for at the moment? I miss the creative collaboration of film making, working as a crew.
Where’s your happy place? The desert.
Next holiday/destination? (Soon) Kristian and I are off to Tasmania for my first remote artist residency. And there’s whispers of my second residency in Morocco early next year.
Finish the sentence: Baths to me are...a last resort. If all else fails, bath.
Story Notes
- Follow Amanda on instagram
- View her latest collection 'Time is my friend' at amandajones.art
- Shop Amandas towels, the Salento Stripe Full Bath Set in Cactus and the Baia Verde Bath Sheets
Photographed and interviewed by Rachel Kara Ashton, founder of Fridah
