I'm Amanda Heath — painter, former professional dancer, and someone who has spent her whole life moving towards freedom.
I left home at eleven to live and train at dance school.
Ballet first — precise, disciplined, every movement controlled and accounted for. Beautiful in its own way, but tight. Restricted.
Then after a short stint at The Royal Ballet School I transitioned to jazz, and everything opened up. Expression, instinct, feeling... I found out what it felt like to move freely, and I never forgot it.
After dancing I built businesses.
Successful ones. But the pattern repeated itself — structure, obligation, the weight of other people's expectations. Underneath it all, something kept pulling.
I had always held a quiet desire to make art, but fear kept it at a distance.
For years I told myself it wasn't possible.
One day I decided it was time.
I downsized the house, sold the car, got rid of almost everything, bought an old banger off eBay and gave myself permission to paint. My boys thought I was having a mid-life crisis! Maybe I was, but I know that what I actually did was the scariest and boldest thing I've ever done.
But it was worth it!
Now I work barefoot in a light-filled studio in St Ives, looking out over the fields of Trink. No day feels complete unless I come home covered in paint.
This is what freedom looks like for me. And I want every painting I make to carry that same feeling into your home.