Amy Minson
Amy Minson is an award-winning artist she grew up with an appreciation and a passion for the natural world. Her formative years were spent in and around the St. Johns River in unincorporated Jacksonville, Florida, an area known as Mandarin. She witnessed the change as development took over. The natural areas once her playground quickly disappearing, family friends and local small business losing their way of life. This childhood experience in addition to living in several other riverine areas of the South experiencing rampant development in the name of “progress” remains an influence on her work.
Her art journey started at age seven with pastel lessons with her older brothers. Different interests took over resulting in a 30 odd year hiatus. Her return to painting as an adult began in the world of watercolor inspired by a longtime family friend. Several years later pastel came back in the picture, and after various local and national workshops in pastel brought about enough growth to achieve entry into and several awards in local and national shows. Combining her love for nature and the landscape, she was drawn increasingly to oil painting and particularly to painting en plein air. In 2019 Minson was invited by the Columbia Museum of Art to participate in En Plein Air: Scenes of South Carolina celebrating the traditions and style of plein air painting and drawing seen in the Van Gogh and His Inspirations, exhibition.