Vital Union: Painting with Spaces and Places
Curated by Cerys Dallaway Davidson
21 November 2025- 27 February 2026
Gallagher Academy of Performing Arts, The University of Waikato, Hamilton, Aotearoa New Zealand
“Much of Watson’s previous work draws from the shape and form of the topography and lay of the land, she creates outdoors in wilderness environments, carrying reams of loose canvas, cotton and linen to sites of importance to her. Here she drapes and wraps it across natural pockets of land and flora, onto which she then marks, paints, drips and captures the environs and the surrounds onto the prepared surfaces. This is undertaken in an embodied manner, in tandem and in response to the environment at that time, connecting her practice to that of performance art. Her work creates a connection between place, medium and artist, archiving the site and space through the action of the artist’s embodiment of the environment through gesture produced in response. As identified by Modeen ‘the weather, the sun that dries the ink, breezes, a brush of leaves, damp soil that readily stains the fabric, all push in eagerly to take their turn, to augment this experience of this moment, this convergence of material vestiges.’1 Hanfling notes that Watson then negotiates this tension between artist, the environment and materials in the work she produces.”
“The culmination of this body of work was in the installation of the four canvases in the church setting, displayed as ‘sculptural paintings’ they were suspended throughout the building consciously hung in response to the built environment from which they were formed. Displayed in this exhibition, in the new setting against classic white gallery walls, the works subtly echo their origins and hint at the distant location where they were created. They are metaphorical time travellers, bearing the imprints of stones laid centuries ago and touched by hands long past, now reconnected with those of their descendant and transported to Watson’s home overseas—bridging both past and present. As Watson notes Rowan Williams observed, a place is shaped not only by its materials but by the echoes and resonances that deepen our understanding of our world.”
An excerpt from “Vital Union: Painting with Spaces and Places”, written by Cerys Dallaway Davidson. Essay published in the exhibition catalogue “Vital Union”, 2025.
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Essays
Amanda Watson: Co-created Art with the Natural Environment. Written by Mary Modeen, published on https://www.amandawatson.com/about May 30th, 2026.
Edged Fields: The tactile vision of Amanda Watson’s site-responsive paintings. Written by Adrienne Dengerink Chaplin, published on https://www.amandawatson.com May 30th, 2026.
Vital Union: Painting with Spaces and Places. Cerys Dallaway Davidson. Essay published in the exhibition catalogue “Vital Union”, The University of Waikato 2025.
Acknowledgements - I am truly grateful to have experienced the generous hospitality of the community in Egdefield and St Peters & St Pauls, and to hear the stories that have weaved their way through our lives. I would like to extend my warm thanks for the support of Reverend David Longe, Richard Peaver, Kay and Kevin (my ‘painting assistants’) and the St Peter’s & St Paul’s Church Parish Committee, Helen and Tom for their warm and generous hospitality, and the local community on my journey of painting in Edgefield during. Thanks also to friends and family and for the support of the Waikato Institute of Technology; Caleb at ITIA/St Andrews University; Mary at DJCAD/University of Dundee; Gallagher Academy of Performing Arts Gallery, Murray Rae at the University of Otago, and the Journal of Visual Arts Practice, for your wider support of me and this work. Thanks also to Mark Purdom for the installation photography, and to Cerys for her curatorial expertise, insight, and essay.
Events - Opening Blessing, 8th September 2024; Painting Residency at St Peter’s & St Paul’s Church in Edgefield, Sweetbriar Ln, Melton Constable NR24 2AF, UK; Exhibition: ‘Vital Union: Painting with Edgefield’, Saturday 28th September 2024, St Peter’s & St Paul’s; Research Presentation: ‘Vital Union: Seeing the Real in Site-responsive Painting’, ITIA Research Seminar, School of Divinity, St Andrews University, 12.00pm, 4th October 2024; Research Seminar: Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art & Design [DJCAD], University of Dundee, Scotland, 8th October 2024; Research Presentation: ‘Vital Union: Seeing the Real in Site-responsive Painting’, panel speaker, Art Association of Australia and New Zealand. Australian National University, Canberra. 4th December2024; Research Presentation: ‘Vital Union: Seeing the Real in Site-responsive Painting’, Edinburgh College of Art's, Edinburgh School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture (ESALA), ‘PROKALO’ Lecture Series, 10th April 2025; Presentation & Workshop: ‘Vital Union: Seeing the Real in Site-responsive Painting’, Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Art Educators National Conference, April 15th 2025; Artist Publication Book Launch, 21st November 2025; Lecture, Art & Theology Winter Programme, University of Otago, 21st July 2025. ‘Vital Union: Painting with Spaces and Places’, curated by Cerys Dallaway Davidson, 21 November 2025- 27 February 2026, Gallagher Academy of Performing Arts, The University of Waikato, Hamilton, Aotearoa New Zealand.
Images:
1. ‘An Ink-soaked Atrium’ being installed at St Peters & St Pauls Edgefield.
2. ‘An Ink-soaked Atrium’, ink on canvas, 212x143cm.
3. Installation image [detail] of ‘Where the Shadows Fall’, 1000x180cm, ink on canvas.
4. Detail of ‘An Ink-soaked Atrium’.