Amanda Black- Great Blue Heron

Great Blue Heron
needle felted wool
9x9"

12"x12"x4" (framed in shadow box)

50% of the proceeds from this piece will be donated to the Nature Conservancy to support their conservation efforts. To learn more about their work please visit www.nature.org

Amanda Black is a multi-media artist who specializes in needle felting, watercolor painting, and murals. In college, she studied biology, graphic design, and teaching. She has lived in many places and worked many different jobs in her life. Through all of this, two things have been consistently present since childhood:  her love for nature, and her love for creating art. The art form that she has spent the most time immersing herself in is needle felting. She learned about it in 2018 and became obsessed. She loves the sound and feeling of the felting process just as much as the bold texture and color present in the wool that gives each piece its unique beauty. Amanda worked as a Naturalist in the past, and has always been an avid outdoors person and conservation advocate. 

The inspiration for this felted wool piece was a photo of a great blue heron by Mary Schnepf that was shared in a Free Reference Photos for Artists page on Facebook. Amanda did ornithological field work as part of her biology degree, and is a self-certified Bird Nerd. She finds herons exceptionally fun art subjects due to their beautiful earth-tone colors and elegant shapes. She chose to use a black background to make the colors really pop, giving the piece a bold and somewhat abstract look.

Needle felted art is created by starting with loose wool fiber and poking it thousands of times with a specialized grooved needle until it stays in place. Wool has microscopic scales, which cause it to stick together when it is tangled or agitated. Pictures and sculptures made with this technique take a long time and a lot of patience to create

To see more of Amanda's work be sure to follow on Instagram @amandablack.art