Upon entering the studio space, the first thing you notice is the disarray of brushes and paints surrounded by walls lined with striking bas-relief paintings — solid evidence of an artist hard at work. Then you eye the number of easels scattered about the room, many more than a single artist would need. That’s because Amanda Matthews Fields, owner of the Wild Honeysuckle Studio in the St. Matthews Pavilion (formerly Artopia), shares her workspace, as well as her talents, with novice painters in the most nontraditional of classroom settings: You provide the willingness and diligence to put your artistic vision onto canvas and she’ll take breaks from her own work to help you do it.
"Every person has a spark within them and it’s up to the two of us to get it out," Fields says.
While her students paint with acrylic or oil-based paints, Fields uses mortar, ink and natural pigments to create true sculptural scenes on canvas. The Sister Cities of Louisville program took note of her talent and awarded her a grant to travel to Mainz, Germany, in July. There she participated in "Arts in the City," an exhibition of artists from all over the world geared toward promoting an understanding of other cultures. Fields hopes to show through her artwork the organic connections people can develop with natural materials, as well as with each other. "When it all comes down to it, if only subatomically," she says, "we all have something in common: We are all made of the same stuff."
