top of page

Amanda Jane West Art

Amanda Jane West- mountain art - the Spirit of Place is always my starting point.

GreenSummerEscape

Amanda Jane West Art

mountain artist in Klosters, Switzerland

the spirit of place is always my starting point

#durbangirlscollege #dgcalumniassociation #dgcjourneywithus

#durbangirlscollege #dgcalumniassociation #dgcjourneywithus

#heimatort #umhlanga #kwazulunatal

#heimatort #umhlanga #kwazulunatal

@norvalfoundation @irma_stern_museum

@norvalfoundation @irma_stern_museum

#onmyeaseltoday - a fire bird in the sky over the beautiful Babanango Valley in #kwazulunatal

#onmyeaseltoday - a fire bird in the sky over the beautiful Babanango Valley in #kwazulunatal

#jackiewullschlager #monet

#jackiewullschlager #monet

#onmyeaseltoday #soundsofafrica #babanagogamereserve #kwazulunatal

#onmyeaseltoday #soundsofafrica #babanagogamereserve #kwazulunatal

morning after the snowstorm

morning after the snowstorm

#ontheeaseltoday #africansunset @babanango_game_reserve #kwazulunatal

The Savanna Hypothesis Theory posits that humans possess an innate preference for environments resembling the African savanna—characterized by scattered trees, open grasslands, and visible water sources—because these landscapes offered optimal conditions for survival during early hominid evolution. This preference is believed to influence modern aesthetic choices.
#savannahypothesis #stressreductiontheory

#ontheeaseltoday #africansunset @babanango_game_reserve #kwazulunatal

The Savanna Hypothesis Theory posits that humans possess an innate preference for environments resembling the African savanna—characterized by scattered trees, open grasslands, and visible water sources—because these landscapes offered optimal conditions for survival during early hominid evolution. This preference is believed to influence modern aesthetic choices.
#savannahypothesis #stressreductiontheory

on the easel today #africansunrise @jumeirahthandasafari #kwazulunatalsafari #wildlifepainting

on the easel today #africansunrise @jumeirahthandasafari #kwazulunatalsafari #wildlifepainting

“Don’t Blink”
oil on canvas 80cm x 120cm x 4cm
available

When the leopard looked up to gaze at us I glimpsed the whole universe in a moment. A chance encounter near Setara in Kruger, a tail flicking in a sausage tree. #axismundi #sacredmoment

“Perhaps it’s an early memory that stays firmly planted, or an unexpected swell of awe, or a fleeting but deeply felt connection. These experiences can become fixed points, poles around which parts of us will always turn, orbiting again and again around the truth that lies at their center.”

“One of my favorite questions to ask people is whether they experience the sacred in the living world. Everyone I have ever put this question to has, near-immediately, answered “yes,” even if they would not call themselves spiritual or ever employ the word sacred. The affirmative answer to that question is also always paired with a specific place or experience. I’ve heard countless stories of what I’ve come to think of as axis mundi experiences: encounters that have pulled someone into a deep experience of felt belonging upon the tiny bit of Earth that they find themselves upon.”

“I define “sacred” as that which pulls us beyond the bounds of our individual selves, envelops us within mystery, and gives us a glimpse into the vast, entwined, eternal network of living beings that we are in relationship with. A simpler way of saying it: the moments when we are most fully human via our awareness that we are fully entangled, down to our nuclei and electrons, in the Earth and the cosmos. Such an orientation does not require a belief in God or gods. The living world can illuminate this understanding in the forms of awe and wonder, as well as in the forms of grief and loss.”

Axis Mundi
On place-based centers
CHELSEA STEINAUER-SCUDDER
NOV 16, 2025

“Don’t Blink”
oil on canvas 80cm x 120cm x 4cm
available

When the leopard looked up to gaze at us I glimpsed the whole universe in a moment. A chance encounter near Setara in Kruger, a tail flicking in a sausage tree. #axismundi #sacredmoment

“Perhaps it’s an early memory that stays firmly planted, or an unexpected swell of awe, or a fleeting but deeply felt connection. These experiences can become fixed points, poles around which parts of us will always turn, orbiting again and again around the truth that lies at their center.”

“One of my favorite questions to ask people is whether they experience the sacred in the living world. Everyone I have ever put this question to has, near-immediately, answered “yes,” even if they would not call themselves spiritual or ever employ the word sacred. The affirmative answer to that question is also always paired with a specific place or experience. I’ve heard countless stories of what I’ve come to think of as axis mundi experiences: encounters that have pulled someone into a deep experience of felt belonging upon the tiny bit of Earth that they find themselves upon.”

“I define “sacred” as that which pulls us beyond the bounds of our individual selves, envelops us within mystery, and gives us a glimpse into the vast, entwined, eternal network of living beings that we are in relationship with. A simpler way of saying it: the moments when we are most fully human via our awareness that we are fully entangled, down to our nuclei and electrons, in the Earth and the cosmos. Such an orientation does not require a belief in God or gods. The living world can illuminate this understanding in the forms of awe and wonder, as well as in the forms of grief and loss.”

Axis Mundi
On place-based centers
CHELSEA STEINAUER-SCUDDER
NOV 16, 2025

revisting leopard in a brighter bolder and more positive mood #ontheeaseltoday

revisting leopard in a brighter bolder and more positive mood #ontheeaseltoday

Smile Cloud over Klosters #happysky

Smile Cloud over Klosters #happysky

#loveistheanswer #heartbeats

#loveistheanswer #heartbeats

On the easel today- oil sketch on canvas- the road up to Berghaus Vereina. #summerinthealps #mountainartist #klosterschöntal #graubündensommer

On the easel today- oil sketch on canvas- the road up to Berghaus Vereina. #summerinthealps #mountainartist #klosterschöntal #graubündensommer

“To all my friends and relatives in Alcoholics Anonymous,” I began. “I say they were right to become intoxicated. Life without moments of intoxication is not worth a “pitcher of spit,” as the felicitous saying goes. They simply chose what was for them a deadly poison on which to get drunk.

“Good examples of harmless toots are some of the things children do: They get smashed for hours on some strictly limited aspect of the Great Big Everything, the Universe, such as water or snow or mud or colors or rocks or echoes or funny sounds from the voice box, or banging on a drum and so on. Only two people are involved: the child and the Universe. The child does a little something something to the Universe, and the Great Big Everything does something funny or beautiful or scary or even painful in return. The child teaches the Universe how to be a good playmate, to be nice instead of mean.

“And professional picture painters, who are what a lot of this made-up story is about, are people who continue to play children’s games with goo, and dirt, with chalks and powdered minerals mixed with oil and dead embers and so on, dabbing, smearing, scrawling, scraping, and so on, for all their natural lives.

“When picture painters become adults, and particularly if other people depend on them, they are likely to allow a third player, with dismaying powers to hold up to ridicule or reward grotesquely or generally behave like a lunatic, to join the game. It is that part of society which does not paint well, usually, but which knows what it likes with a vengeance.

“In any case, since the game goes well only when played by two, the painter and the Great Big Everything, three‘s a crowd!”

“My point is this. The most satisfied of all painters is the one who can become intoxicated for hours or days or weeks or years with what his hands and eyes can do with art materials, and let the rest of the world go hang.”

Kurt Vonnegut “Fates Worse Than Death”
#kurtvonnegut #fatesworsethandeath

“To all my friends and relatives in Alcoholics Anonymous,” I began. “I say they were right to become intoxicated. Life without moments of intoxication is not worth a “pitcher of spit,” as the felicitous saying goes. They simply chose what was for them a deadly poison on which to get drunk.

“Good examples of harmless toots are some of the things children do: They get smashed for hours on some strictly limited aspect of the Great Big Everything, the Universe, such as water or snow or mud or colors or rocks or echoes or funny sounds from the voice box, or banging on a drum and so on. Only two people are involved: the child and the Universe. The child does a little something something to the Universe, and the Great Big Everything does something funny or beautiful or scary or even painful in return. The child teaches the Universe how to be a good playmate, to be nice instead of mean.

“And professional picture painters, who are what a lot of this made-up story is about, are people who continue to play children’s games with goo, and dirt, with chalks and powdered minerals mixed with oil and dead embers and so on, dabbing, smearing, scrawling, scraping, and so on, for all their natural lives.

“When picture painters become adults, and particularly if other people depend on them, they are likely to allow a third player, with dismaying powers to hold up to ridicule or reward grotesquely or generally behave like a lunatic, to join the game. It is that part of society which does not paint well, usually, but which knows what it likes with a vengeance.

“In any case, since the game goes well only when played by two, the painter and the Great Big Everything, three‘s a crowd!”

“My point is this. The most satisfied of all painters is the one who can become intoxicated for hours or days or weeks or years with what his hands and eyes can do with art materials, and let the rest of the world go hang.”

Kurt Vonnegut “Fates Worse Than Death”
#kurtvonnegut #fatesworsethandeath

the quiet side of Venice
@venice.architecture.biennale @hotel_sant_antonin @trattoria_da_jonny #proudmamamoment❤️
@sbbcffffs #venedig

the quiet side of Venice
@venice.architecture.biennale @hotel_sant_antonin @trattoria_da_jonny #proudmamamoment❤️
@sbbcffffs #venedig

summer so far @davosklostersmountains
@myswitzerland
#inlovewithswiterland
#ineedswitzerland

summer so far @davosklostersmountains
@myswitzerland
#inlovewithswiterland
#ineedswitzerland

“A Toast to the Sweet Taste of Summer”(in the valley under the Unghürhörner Mountain)
oil on canvas tryptich
each 60cm x 60cm x 4cm

“But walking causes absorption. Walking interminably, taking in through your pores the height of the mountains when you are confronting them at length, breathing in the shape of the hills for hours at a time during a slow descent. The body becomes steeped in the earth it treads. And thus, gradually, it stops being in the landscape: it becomes the landscape. That doesn’t have to mean dissolution, as if the walker were fading away to become a mere inflection, a footnote. It’s more a flashing moment: sudden flame, time catching fire. And here, the feeling of eternity is all at once that vibration between presences. Eternity, here, in a spark.”

― Frédéric Gros, A Philosophy of Walking
#inlovewithswitzerland #graubünden #prättigau #saatchiartist #mountainartist #ineedswitzerland

“A Toast to the Sweet Taste of Summer”(in the valley under the Unghürhörner Mountain)
oil on canvas tryptich
each 60cm x 60cm x 4cm

“But walking causes absorption. Walking interminably, taking in through your pores the height of the mountains when you are confronting them at length, breathing in the shape of the hills for hours at a time during a slow descent. The body becomes steeped in the earth it treads. And thus, gradually, it stops being in the landscape: it becomes the landscape. That doesn’t have to mean dissolution, as if the walker were fading away to become a mere inflection, a footnote. It’s more a flashing moment: sudden flame, time catching fire. And here, the feeling of eternity is all at once that vibration between presences. Eternity, here, in a spark.”

― Frédéric Gros, A Philosophy of Walking
#inlovewithswitzerland #graubünden #prättigau #saatchiartist #mountainartist #ineedswitzerland

“Think Like a Mountain” process #neondreams #lifewithoutfantasies #lifewithoutfantasiesneondreams #freshofftheeasel #paintingoftheday #graubündenkunst #inlovewithswitzerland🇨🇭 #ineedswitzerland #alpinepainting #chaletstyle #chaletlife #chaletchic #thisartistslife #summerinthealps

“Think Like a Mountain” process #neondreams #lifewithoutfantasies #lifewithoutfantasiesneondreams #freshofftheeasel #paintingoftheday #graubündenkunst #inlovewithswitzerland🇨🇭 #ineedswitzerland #alpinepainting #chaletstyle #chaletlife #chaletchic #thisartistslife #summerinthealps

“Think Like a Mountain”
90cm x 90cm x 4cm
oil on canvas

“Your job in this framework is to rack up achievements, faster than others, sooner than most. But what if life is a fractal with interlocking images, with parts reflecting the whole? What if life is a web, where past and present and future melt into a rapturous immediacy, glimpses of which we perceive in heightened moments? What if you don’t have to beat yourself into shape? What if there is no outside force to which you must measure yourself? What if your questions, your imbroglios, and tooth-chips are just as sacred as “having it all together”? What if you are in the most interesting place you can be in now? This home that is a dance with exile?”

“This realization that there is no permanent home, no permanent ground, just rupturing places and condensing fields of welcome—only for a while—drives us to find new kin in plants and mountains and human others.”

These Wilds Beyond Our Fences: Letters to My Daughter on Humanity’s Search for Home (English Edition)
by Akomolafe, Bayo

“Think Like a Mountain”
90cm x 90cm x 4cm
oil on canvas

“Your job in this framework is to rack up achievements, faster than others, sooner than most. But what if life is a fractal with interlocking images, with parts reflecting the whole? What if life is a web, where past and present and future melt into a rapturous immediacy, glimpses of which we perceive in heightened moments? What if you don’t have to beat yourself into shape? What if there is no outside force to which you must measure yourself? What if your questions, your imbroglios, and tooth-chips are just as sacred as “having it all together”? What if you are in the most interesting place you can be in now? This home that is a dance with exile?”

“This realization that there is no permanent home, no permanent ground, just rupturing places and condensing fields of welcome—only for a while—drives us to find new kin in plants and mountains and human others.”

These Wilds Beyond Our Fences: Letters to My Daughter on Humanity’s Search for Home (English Edition)
by Akomolafe, Bayo

“Pas de Deux”
90cm x 90cm
oil on canvas
SOLD
#gladiolapainting #oiloncanvas #paintingoftheday

“Pas de Deux”
90cm x 90cm
oil on canvas
SOLD
#gladiolapainting #oiloncanvas #paintingoftheday

#ontheeaseltoday chillin’ with my best furry friend
#mountainartist @myswitzerland #mydreamjob

#ontheeaseltoday chillin’ with my best furry friend
#mountainartist @myswitzerland #mydreamjob

#snowdog #aussieshepherd #frisbeedog #dogmuse

#snowdog #aussieshepherd #frisbeedog #dogmuse

Winter’s White Waltz
oil on board
50cm x 40cm
framed in re-used old wood from the barns in Klosters
#winterscene #graubünden #mountainartist #davosklosters #paintingoftheday #inlovewithswitzerland #prättigau #klosterschöntal #whitechristmas #letitsnow #davosklostersmountains #graubündenkunst #saatchiartist #inspiredbynature #inspiredbyswitzerland #inspiredbymountains

Winter’s White Waltz
oil on board
50cm x 40cm
framed in re-used old wood from the barns in Klosters
#winterscene #graubünden #mountainartist #davosklosters #paintingoftheday #inlovewithswitzerland #prättigau #klosterschöntal #whitechristmas #letitsnow #davosklostersmountains #graubündenkunst #saatchiartist #inspiredbynature #inspiredbyswitzerland #inspiredbymountains

“SoftSlice of SilentSnowlight”
oil on canvas 80cm x 120cm x 4cm
#saatchiartist #davosklosters #mountainartist #graubünden #winterscene #oiloncanvas #paintingoftheday #coldplay #iaam #saatchiart #saatchiartist #prättigau #davosklostersmountains #alpineartist #chaletinteriors #chaletchic #swisschalet

“SoftSlice of SilentSnowlight”
oil on canvas 80cm x 120cm x 4cm
#saatchiartist #davosklosters #mountainartist #graubünden #winterscene #oiloncanvas #paintingoftheday #coldplay #iaam #saatchiart #saatchiartist #prättigau #davosklostersmountains #alpineartist #chaletinteriors #chaletchic #swisschalet

#wintersunset #mountainmagic #davosklosters #prättigau #inlovewithswitzerland #graubünden

#wintersunset #mountainmagic #davosklosters #prättigau #inlovewithswitzerland #graubünden

#autumninswitzerland #goldengraubunden #inlovewithswitzerland #klosterschöntal #davosklostersmountains #herbstfarben #michaelkiwanuka #floatingparade

#autumninswitzerland #goldengraubunden #inlovewithswitzerland #klosterschöntal #davosklostersmountains #herbstfarben #michaelkiwanuka #floatingparade

.pro-gallery-wix-wrapper {display: block !important;} .pro-gallery-wix-wrapper .gallery-item-container {opacity: 1 !important; display: block !important;}

Follow me on Instagram

@amanda.j.west.art

Get in Touch

amanda.j.west.art@gmail.com

"Arabesque"

bottom of page