The paintings of Amy Werntz reveal an obsession with time and the everyday moments and experiences, often overlooked, that define most of our lives. The artist focuses on an older generation of people, and how their posture, clothing, and bodies reveal the stories of their lives. In depicting elder subjects, she hopes to counteract the ways in which “society has become so focused on youth as the representation of beauty and seems to have lost the reverence for age and experience,” and to challenge the viewer to confront fears of aging and an impulse to overlook our seniors as a result. Her figures inhabit shared spaces — grocery stores, bookstores, cafes, and public sidewalks — drawing attention to the experiences we hold in common and inviting us to change our perceptions of aging.
Werntz is a practicing painter and interior designer, with a BFA in interior design from the Art Institute of Dallas, Texas. Her paintings have been exhibited widely in Texas and in group shows in Wausau, Wisconsin and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. She has received recognition and numerous awards for her portraits from the Portrait Society of America and took first place in the Richeson 75 International Art Competition Portrait/Figure category in 2020 and second place in 2023. She was a finalist for the Bennett Prize in 2021.
Werntz resides in Dallas, Texas.
