I had the pleasure of sitting down with Amy Walsh-Harris in her Paris studio this week. The sun was streaming in the windows and danced around the room, seemingly celebrating her array of paints, brushes, water cups and paint palettes. Her easels and walls were adorned with works in progress and finished pieces. It was a feast for the eyes!
Amy was initially inspired by her friend’s mother who, as a hobby worked with oil pastels. She had a studio in her basement and Amy was always fascinated by her use of bold colours in her portraits and floral arrangements. Amy especially loved her portraits. She began sketching portraits of her favourite celebrities. For most of her childhood Amy loved doing pencil portraits.
Currently, Amy finds her inspiration in places that she feels a strong emotional connection to. Growing up in Toronto, Amy’s favourite thing to do was to walk all over the city and observe the people and places. Amy has a romanticized view of what she sees around her. She loves to paint cafes, street-scenes, busy patios and places that she loved to go to when she lived in the city. Amy uses exaggerated colour to convey the feeling that she has about a place she feels connected to. Amy loves to create a snapshot in time while these places exist, knowing that one day they might be gone. Amy loves the idea of creating a piece of work that captures the landscape, culture and feeling of a specific place and time.
“I want to be able to create a piece to show others what I see when I look at the world.”
Amy was greatly influenced by the impressionists. Renoir’s painting, “Bal du moulin de la Galette” is one of Amy’s favourite paintings as well as George Seurat’s, “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte”.
“I love works with a strong sense of colour and culture that are filled with people out living their lives.”
Amy paints primarily with oil. She loves the texture and vibrance of oil paint as well as the blending capacity and versatility working with the various mediums available with oil paint.
Amy describes her work as an emotional response to how she feels about a place.
“I love to work with exaggerated colour and light to give a slightly surreal or romanticized feel to the places that I paint.”
Amy now creates with more detailed work in her pieces with the intent to give the observer more to look at. She wants people to find new details in her paintings each time they look at them.
Amy explained that it took a long time to figure out what her style was, and she finds that it is always evolving. She tried several different styles and subjects and it took her about eight years to find her own, unique style. Amy explained that she was often rejected when she applied to juried shows and galleries when she was in her twenties. When Amy reached her thirties, she went from working as a full time waitress to part time in order to create time to paint, and eventually made the jump to painting full time. It still took years to be established in selling her work regularly. Amy started by selling paintings for very little money in order to pay for more painting supplies.
Amy originally came to visit Paris for lunch. She fell in love with the skyline of the buildings on the main street, and that Paris was in the middle of two rivers. Since that lunch in 2015, she and her husband Peter started watching the real estate in Paris until they found their home here, which they share with their son Jackman.
“Paris almost felt like a painting. (I know that sound’s cheesy) I love living in Paris. People are very friendly here and even though I have been here for over four years, I keep discovering new houses that I have never really looked at before. I love that I can just walk into town and visit with people, especially if I have spent a lot of time indoors painting. I think Paris is such a beautiful town to live in.”
To learn more about Amy please visit her website at https://amywalshharris.com/
