Liminal

Liminal began with darker acrylic layers and denser tonal structures which were gradually pushed back and partially obscured through successive washes and reworking. More insistent linear forms and energetic marks then emerged across the surface, at times resembling scratched or incised drawing. The painting developed through a process of layering, disruption and dissolution, allowing translucent passages, suspended forms and shifting spatial relationships to remain visible simultaneously.

This work continues an ongoing interest in hanging or “developing” forms that has appeared throughout my practice over many years. Some of these suspended structures recall much earlier works in which nets filled with fabric were suspended from the studio ceiling and then drawn or painted as forms in a state of becoming. In making this work I was influenced by symbolism, psychoanalytic ideas surrounding trauma, embodiment and transformation, the gestural and drawn surfaces of Cy Twombly, the suspended and psychologically charged installations of Annette Messager, and the bodily and transitional imagery explored in the work of Kiki Smith, Louise Bourgeois, Eva Hesse and Berlinde De Bruyckere, as well as the unsettling organic imagery of the movie Alien.

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Amanda Robins is an Australian painter whose work explores psychological and emotional states through abstract oil paintings and works on paper. Her practice is driven by an ongoing interest in painting as a way of investigating inner experience and the possibilities of materials like oil paint and watercolour.

Working intuitively in the studio, Robins experiments with colour, gesture and form, allowing the process of painting to unfold through exploration and play. The studio remains a space of curiosity and discovery, where ideas emerge through the physical act of making.

Robins studied painting and drawing at Monash University, the Victorian College of the Arts and the College of Fine Art, UNSW. She has taught painting and drawing at several tertiary institutions in Australia and was Head of Painting and Drawing at the South Australian School of Art in Adelaide from 2006 to 2009.

Alongside her studio practice, she works as a psychotherapist in private practice, working with people with a history of attachment trauma
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Website: amandarobinsart.com