Cover Artist: Amanda McLenon

By Gina Malone

Amanda McLenon has studied the natural world through the lenses of both artist and scientist. “I would say that my background in biology led me to paint wildlife, but I think it is the other way around,” McLenon says. “I was always interested in the natural world. I was a kid who started a birding checklist and spent most of my time exploring outdoors. My undergraduate studies focused on ornithology, so my love of birds started early!”

McLenon grew up in Michigan and taught high school biology for seven years after earning an undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan. “A desire to further my own education led to a move to Charleston, SC, for my Masters in Marine Biology, where I lived on a sailboat and completed my thesis research,” she says. “I started painting for fun during this time—while I investigated the effects of climate change on the symbiotic algae in coral.” Her findings were published in the journal Biogeochemistry, and she then embarked on a 53-day research cruise in Antarctica. “Upon my return, ironically, I started receiving requests for painting commissions,” she says. “The path to my painting career kept presenting itself, and I followed.”

She has worked as a full-time artist now for nearly 15 years. In 2012, she was awarded the prestigious Griffith-Reyburn Lowcountry Artist of the Year Award and her work was exhibited in a solo show. “Painting wildlife made sense with my background, but it’s also my passion,” McLenon says. “My style is impressionistic but accurate and has gained acclaim with fishing enthusiasts and others who appreciate the natural world.”

Fellow artist Heather MacQueen Jones, of Charleston, enjoys seeing how mountain wildlife now also inspires McLenon since her move to Asheville in 2022. “What strikes me most about Amanda as an artist is how passionate she is about depicting wildlife as the compositional emphasis,” MacQueen Jones says. “She’s always changing the backgrounds of her work which creates interest for viewers. She’s used maps and gold leaf and multi-medium combinations like charcoal and acrylics, but what has stayed consistent is her realistic depiction of the focal point, which is wildlife. A lot of artists paint wildlife, but she studies them in their habitats, relishing in her time with nature’s creatures and capturing them beautifully.”

McLenon considers herself fortunate that, in order to find inspiration, she has to spend time outdoors exploring, observing and capturing reference photos. “Once I have a photo with great light and a subject that I am excited to paint, I work on composition and sketch the piece,” she says. “I paint in oil on canvas and wood panels, and I employ genuine silver, copper and 23-karat gold leaf into my work.”

Her primary subjects are herons and egrets, and she often captures them preening and nesting. “I think this is because these are such relaxing scenes,” she says. “When I am watching them in these rituals of self-care, I feel so connected.” And with a painting, she says, she is able to communicate the beauty she sees and feels while in nature.

Staying true to her focus on wildlife—what she most wants to paint—rather than saying “yes” to other work that might come her way has been important in her development as an artist. “Learning to say ‘no’ to pet portraits or sign painting or anything outside of my niche was part of my early conviction to follow my own path,” she says. She does enjoy a challenge, however. “My stepdaughter Kate has influenced my work a couple of times,” McLenon says. “Once when she asked if I could paint a white bird without using white and another time when she asked if I would hang my own art in my home. I definitely challenged myself to paint egrets with all of their true colors. And I also worked to create an aesthetic and archival quality to my work that I am not only proud of but that I would collect myself.”

Currently, she is working to create large-scale, custom paintings, and plans to teach workshops and classes at all levels on oil painting and on the business of being an artist.

McLenon hopes that those who see her work know that she is an academic, an artist who draws upon her training as a marine biologist to portray her passion for the natural world. “I want them to see that my aesthetic is peaceful and that it aims to capture the spirit of each bird or animal,” she says. “Conversations around my work allow me to educate the public about the wildlife I paint, the importance of habitat conservation and other topics related to their preservation.”

She views the quiet hours that she spends painting as akin to prayer or meditation. “The life path of a painting starts with inspiration and ends with delivery to the home of a collector,” she says. “Original artwork has energy that is not present in reproductions. When you collect an original you have a relationship with the person who created it—so meeting the artist is important. My career has been built on the relationships I have with those who are drawn to my work. And I am so, so grateful that I get to do this for a living.”

Learn more about Amanda McLenon Fine Art at AmandaMcLenon.com, and follow on Instagram @amandamclenon or on Facebook.com/AmandaMcLenonArt. Find McLenon’s work regionally at Gallery COR and Joan Awake. Smaller works and reproductions are available at Artisans on Main, in Weaverville, and at Dog & Pony Show, in Asheville. Visits to her studio at The Mill at Riverside are available by appointment. McLenon’s work will be featured in the 2025 Summer Colors Fine Art Show Friday, July 18, through Sunday, July 20, at the Sapphire Valley Community Center, in Sapphire Valley.