Amanda Hanlon is a visual artist based in Minnesota. Her practice is informed by her experiences living and working in Wisconsin, New York, Georgia, Washington, California, and Minnesota, drawing inspiration from the places and communities she’s called home.
Amanda holds an Associate’s Degree from Pratt Institute, a BFA from the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and an MFA in painting and drawing from the University of Washington–Seattle. Her studio practice integrates painting and printmaking, often creating parallel bodies of work in both mediums. She has taught at Savannah College of Art and Design and Armstrong State University in Georgia.
Since 2023, Amanda has served as Program and Volunteer Coordinator at Belwin Conservancy, a Minnesota non-profit where she integrates art, ecology, and community through arts and naturalist programming that connects people with nature.
Amanda’s work has been exhibited in solo, group, and juried shows across several states. Recent highlights include a Creative Individuals Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board, long-listings for Jackson’s Art Prize (2025, 2026), and curating the show “Where There Is Water” for A House Unbuilt’s inaugural curatorial incubator, where she presented her paintings, drawings, and prints that examine Minnesota’s industrial history and ecology through the lens of three towns.
Statement
Moving to new homes and traveling often as an adult has made places especially meaningful to me. Creating art from what I see helps me connect with and understand each place I visit or move to. When arriving at a new place, I’ve familiarized myself with my surroundings by walking, riding public transit, or visiting nearby towns, always looking for artistic inspiration.
Currently, I’ve lived in the same state and in the same home longer than ever before. This stability has made me notice the changes in seasons and the natural world more closely. There is a time of the year when shadows get richer, light turns golden, flowers bloom, or birds return from migration. It also gives me a chance to include local history, consider the stories behind landmarks, and add my own connection to my home state in the work I create.
In my work, I focus on homes, public landmarks, and human-altered landscapes. I always start by drawing, either from life or from photos, using graphite, colored pencil, gouache, or watercolor. Drawing helps me figure out the composition, study color and light, and see if I’m interested in a subject. I often paint outdoors to connect more with a place, then use those painted sketches, color studies, and photos as references for larger oil paintings or prints in my studio.
Mixing and choosing colors is my favorite part of the process. I like looking at a scene and deciding which colors will best represent a mossy rock, a roof bathed in sunshine, or a white building in shadow. Sometimes I layer thin glazes of oil paint to let the colors shine through, or I make prints with sharp lines or rough textures.
Absence is something I think about often in my work. When I come across a space, I like to notice the marks that show something used to be there and wonder why things changed and how the place is different now. This idea appears in my art through the absence of a figure, or mentions of a river that isn’t shown in the painting.
In my work, my goal is to inspire people to see their surroundings and home with new curiosity and ask questions about how things came to be. By focusing on absence, change, and the marks left by time or people, I hope my art helps others build a deeper, more thoughtful connection to place.