The Spirit of the Land and the Brush

Born in Adelaide, Australia, Amanda Jane Martin entered a world where art and nature were deeply intertwined through her very lineage. Her father was a professor of botany and her mother an accomplished watercolourist, providing a foundation where the observation of life and the study of form were part of the household air. She sought her formal training at the South Australian School of Art between 1972 and 1975, a period that would shape her technical approach to both paper and canvas.

In those early years, her hands were often busy with the sharp, political edges of printmaking. She moved within the Progressive Art Movement in Adelaide, working alongside contemporaries like Ann Newmarch and Robert Boynes. Her work during this era was far from quiet; she produced posters that spoke of the struggle for equality, the plight of migrant women, and the protests against the Vietnam War. These were not merely images but calls to action, often shared through screenprints and engravings that carried messages of solidarity with the working class.

As her life moved toward Canberra in 1978, her practice underwent a profound transformation. The restrained, graphic nature of her prints began to give way to the heavy, tactile presence of oil paint. She found herself drawn to the weight of impasto brushwork and a palette that could capture the brooding intensity of the Australian landscape. This shift was not a departure from her convictions but an expansion of them. The industrial structures and urban scenes she painted reflected a growing concern with how human industry encroaching upon the natural world.

A Vision of Earth and Industry

The scale of her ambition grew alongside her technique. One of her most significant undertakings was the creation of Red Ochre Cove, a massive work commissioned for the Main Committee Room of the new Parliament House in Canberra. Measuring nearly three metres by over twelve metres, this triptych drew upon both Aboriginal culture and European traditions to present an intense, almost apocalyptic landscape. It captured a sense of a primordial past meeting a heavy, industrial future.

Her later years saw her focus turn toward the desert and the urgent realities of environmental change. She often travelled to remote and regional parts of Australia, carrying crates of canvases to establish a direct connection with the land. Her paintings became more fluid and urgent, reflecting the threat of climate change. In these works, the landscape was no longer just a subject but a living entity under pressure. She frequently collaborated on large-scale installations, sometimes working with her son, Alexander Boynes, to integrate painting with sound and moving images to address ecological issues.

Her legacy remains held in many significant places, including:

• The National Gallery of Australia
• The Art Gallery of New South Wales
• The Guggenheim Museum in New York
• The Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art
• The Art Gallery of South Australia

Beyond the gallery walls, she was a dedicated educator, teaching at the Australian National University School of Art for over two decades. She mentored generations of students, instilling in them a belief that art should engage both the senses and the intellect. Even as her physical strength waned during her battle with cancer, her commitment to the environment and the power of visual communication remained unbroken.