A North Tyneside restorative skin artist whose lifelong passion for art helped shape her business is now looking to develop her career as a professional artist alongside her growing list of paramedical clients.
Amanda Patterson, from Camperdown, runs Wallsend-based Amanda Jo Skin Artist, specialising in restorative skin treatments including realistic areola restoration and permanent makeup and scalp micropigmentation. Very soon she will also offer scar camouflage treatments. However, long before entering the restorative skin industry, Amanda’s first love was always art.
From school onwards, portraiture, realism and drawing became a huge part of her life, with her fascination for faces, features, light and shading eventually helping guide her into the detailed restorative work she now carries out professionally.
Amanda said: “Art has always been my passion. It was the one thing at school that really clicked for me and something I’ve continued throughout my life. Everything I do now in my business comes from those artistic foundations.”
Although Amanda later completed a degree in dance and followed a different career path for several years, art always remained a constant hobby and creative outlet in the background.
During lockdown, Amanda reassessed her future and decided to combine her artistic ability with a career where she could directly help people rebuild confidence following surgery, hair loss or trauma.
She explained: “My art naturally led me into restorative skin work because both require precision, realism and understanding tones and shapes. But now I’m also reaching a point where I want to develop the art side of my life much further as well.”
Amanda’s large-scale artwork includes detailed charcoal portraits, including an intricate image of Amy Winehouse which took around 200 hours to complete over a two-year period.
Working mainly in portraiture, Amanda often creates pieces on a large scale to maximise detail and realism. She also uses unusual techniques, including drawing upside down to better understand shapes and shading.
Her work is currently produced from her home where she paints alongside her young daughter who even now is showing signs of inheriting her mother’s talent.
Amanda has now started releasing prints of her artwork under the name “The Geordie Artist” and hopes to continue building a larger collection and series of pieces in the future.
She said: “The restorative work will always be hugely important to me because it changes people’s confidence and lives. But art is a massive part of who I am personally, and I’m excited to start growing that side of my career as well.”
www.amandajo.co.uk
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Photo: Amanda with some of her artwork (Steve Brock Photography)
PR and Media keith@highlightspr.co.uk 07814 397951