Amos wasn't the only woman of her generation to have ambitions. So I ask her why many of her generational sisters put away their dreams once they got married and started raising families. But I always knew I would really be able to concentrate on my art once my children were older. And I'm very disciplined by nature, so I sketched and painted as often as I could. Amos' discipline is reflected in her tightly composed paintings.
Composition refers to the way the parts of an image are arranged or planned.
It is also the structure underlying what's on the canvas. Amos, clearly preferring talk of her art to talk of her past, says that rigorous composition is central to most of her paintings. But usually I make a lot of preparatory sketches before putting paint on the canvas. And the elements in my pictures are always precisely placed. While Amos has painted everything from portraits to still lifes to copies of Old Master mythological scenes, her specialty is landscapes, particularly those that depict pristine mountain meadows or meandering country paths or charming tumble-down fences, barns and structures.