Amanda Mottorn
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modernjourneyer.bsky.social
Amanda Mottorn
@modernjourneyer.bsky.social
66 followers 38 following 190 posts
World Traveler, AirBnB Host, Artist, Author
https://linktr.ee/AmandaMottorn
DM for painting inquiries.
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modernjourneyer.bsky.social
Mixed Media. Title: You Decide. A place from my imagination. It reminds me of places in Utah and Ward, Colorado where I’ve hiked.

#EastCoastKin
#MountainMonday
A mixed media painting of many layers that were scraped off and repainted. The bottom third is a green meadow with yellow and orange flowers in high grasses. A hillside is beyond that with mostly dark shades of green in the middle horizontal third. The top third is a mountain range in an ultramarine blue with silver leaf interpreted as glowing lights. Behind that is a lilac colored mountain range, farther back under a deep blue sky. The light could be fading causing the darkness of sky or it could be early morning.
December 9, 2025 at 3:45 AM
modernjourneyer.bsky.social
I painted this watercolor enhanced with acrylic paint January 11, 2025. It’s based on a favorite cross-country ski trail in western Pennsylvania. The trees form a tunnel like this. It’s wonderful.

I used this painting for my substack cover this week. Scroll back to find it.

#ArtAdventCalendar
Skinny trees surround the cross country ski trail. You can see the tracks by the blue lines in the middle of the white part where the snow is in the forefront of the painting a tree came down mostly the trunk. It’s brown with dark brown and white on top of that from the snow. Sunset comes quickly. Orange yellow light is in the horizon line toward the back center left of the painting. This ski trail has this unique quality where the trees bend over, making the skier feel like they’re skiing through a cathedral of trees. It’s a new growth forest with skinny limbs bending over into a tunnel. The sky is blue with clouds behind that or maybe it’s snow blowing about. All of the skinny trees have snow on the right side of them, where the snow has blown and detached itself.
December 8, 2025 at 5:32 PM
modernjourneyer.bsky.social
When the season changes, something in us shifts too.

Letting go is tender — but the possibilities that follow are real.

New episode dropped.

Read, have a listen or both.

amandamottornartist.substack.com/p/changing-s...

#ChangingSeasons #CreativeShift #PossibilityAhead #ModernJourneyer
The text reads Changing Seasons. It’s the title of my new episode of season one what it means to be a multi-passionate entrepreneur. It resides on the platform Substack, specifically as written about the title, amandamottornartist.substack.com. Under that is my name, Amanda L. Mottorn and the date, December 7, 2025. Half of a painting I did is revealed. Several skinny gray and black tree trunks have snow on them on the right side the way snow would have hit them. A blue sky is between the trees. Whether transparent clouds or blowing snow is against the blue sky is unclear. In the midday trees bend over forming a tunnel for anyone who cross-country skis there.
December 8, 2025 at 12:24 PM
modernjourneyer.bsky.social
This was one of three watercolors in a series. I was badly needing a day of painting play. I teach a workshop called Creative Play for Adults. I have to mirror that. It was immensely enjoyable painting with wild abandon. #ArtAdventCalendar #EastCoastKin #trees
This painting started with a background of green and red watercolor splotches. I didn’t know where it would go. I needed to paint and it was a relief getting it out. This was the third in the series of “getting it out.” Three dark green pines with solid dark brown trunks dominate each one vertical third of the painting. Puddles of the red and orange pine needles litter the ground. A Yellowing pine, greenish in color contrasts with the first 2 dark pines. A lighter green one, perhaps distant stands behind the two dark green pines on the right. I thought about how the sky was sort of green and maybe that was strange. But maybe it wasn’t the way light can affect what’s behind an object, how a sunset can turn objects orange that we expect to be green. I added some swirling ultramarine blue at the top of the painting but the painting was defiant on that green hue throughout the picture! Tools used: paintbrushes, silicone barbecue brush, watercolor paper, blue painters tape to the dining room wall.
December 7, 2025 at 12:38 PM
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This is a Milanese design I painted in watercolor based on a sculpture showing early designs in Milan at Castle Sforza. I forcused on a monochrome (ish) style.

#EastCoastKin #ArtAdventCalendar #orangepaintings #Milan
This watercolor I painted is based on a Milanese design in exhibition space at Castle Sforza. It was a tall sculpture showing interior designs on a concrete sort of material. These colors called to me, orange-yellow background of short, skinny and thin brushstrokes. I painted dark red with hints of orange stem flowers coming from a short stubby vase.
December 6, 2025 at 5:30 PM
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Here’s an acrylic painting I did on location in Western Pennsylvania near Ligonier. I had about 45 minutes to paint it before returning it to the museum for art exhibition the next day.

Curious for more? drop me a message. Available to a new home.

#ForestFriday
#EastCoastKin #ArtAdventCalendar
This acrylic painting was made on location at the end of summer. The foreground is green grass with tufts of yellowish grass and other places of a dark green. I would call this color sap green in painting. In the middle third are a couple trees with some green leaves on them starting to turn to autumn leaves with oranges and rust colors. Beyond the trees in the background are hillsides, another ridge. This area is known as the Laurel Highlands and it’s a mecca for hiking, cross-country & downhill skiing, fishing, and just being at peace in nature. The sky is clouded over with gray, yet, the changing colors from summer greens to autumn yellows and oranges bring life to an otherwise dull sky of clouds.
December 5, 2025 at 4:13 PM
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Abstract mixed media painting of St. Mark’s Basilica. This one has been waiting patiently for the right person. Curious if it pulls you in—message me if it does.

#Art #OriginalArt #ArtistOnBsky #ArtDrop #CreativeLife #EastCoastKin
Abstract painting of mixed media using pink, purple, blue, light greens depicting St. Mark’s Basilica that I painted soon after returning from a scholarship for painting and drawing in Rome.
December 4, 2025 at 3:54 PM
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“Dreaming of Ljubljana.” Acrylic on Canvas. I painted this from a photograph many years ago that had black and white qualities.

Please enjoy the view; inquire for more details.

#ArtAdventCalendar
Acrylic paint showing a brick wall on the side and reflecting of the building on the left with pink, orange and brown. A blue bridge is at the top and a red shirted boater with a white a cap in a dark turquoise gondola drifts in multiple shades of blue water. I took a picture of it several years ago. The colors were much more subdued with sepia toned appearance. I was playing with gloss and pumice mediums on this painting - the water and the brick wall.
December 4, 2025 at 3:33 PM
modernjourneyer.bsky.social
First significant snow for yesterday’s evening walk. Happy Wednesday!

#freshsnow #wintermagic #eastcoastkin
Snowy path with walker’s footprints, auburn and violet brush off to the sides with cotton like snow on tops of wild grasses. Snow covered ground under snow covered branches of trees almost like a black and white photograph with a cloudy gray sky, a couple grayer clouds pouting in more right side top of the photo.
December 3, 2025 at 12:45 PM
modernjourneyer.bsky.social
First snow in Pittsburgh (pictures later) equals great timing for heated floors in shared cozy spaces at my 1932 Artist Bungalow AirBnB.

#airbnbhost #pittsburghstay #modernJourneyer #artistinresidence
December 2, 2025 at 6:59 PM
modernjourneyer.bsky.social
On yesterday morning’s walk. This is a favorite place that makes me think of Ireland or Scotland. I’ve been to Scotland but not Ireland- not yet…

#nature #morningwalk #green #seasons #travel
December 1, 2025 at 12:08 PM
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Evening walk a couple weeks ago.

#autumn #nature #meditation #colorful
A walking path in Allegheny County Land Trust. To the right a meadow of high grasses turned bronze with cotton white tufts. A shrub in the back left a bright orange. Other shrubs like tufts of color, red and orange off to the right amidst a hillside. A yellow sunset at horizon rising to the light blue sky fading into nighttime.
November 29, 2025 at 12:58 PM
modernjourneyer.bsky.social
What are you most proud of? In my speeches/conversations I often talk about publishing my novel. It took 10 years to write, edit and prepare it for “good enough.” In 2021, I put it out there.

#Published #selfacceptance #findingmoksha #bookstoread #fictionauthors

shorturl.at/RRJQP
A khaki green book in the right corner of finding Moksha: One woman’s path in uncertain times.(available on Amazon). On the left it says review for Finding Moksha. Underneath that a set of 5 gold stars (technically yellow). A review from Leigh in USA with the headline: “beautifully written engaging and surprisingly relatable.” All of this on a black background.
November 28, 2025 at 12:25 PM
modernjourneyer.bsky.social
Happy Thanksgiving! I’m grateful for you! And Nature. And my sister and my nephew and his wife and her family. I’m grateful for my AirBnB guests. I’m grateful for my creative play for adults attendees. I’m grateful for my Toastmasters community.

#thankful #nature #thanksgiving #eastcoastkin
Midland, Ontario. Nature at its best. Red leaves over green last October. Shoreline of the Midland Harbor in the Georgian Bay. Further out a stone shoreline skirting big homes (not seen). An orange sunset just touching the bluish-gray water of the bay.
November 27, 2025 at 1:12 PM
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I hadn’t painted in a while and just took some time to do it yesterday late afternoon. I started with three paintings with an abstract appearance. then my trees emerged.
Three paintings on the wall in my dining room room. It started with abstract, using colors of orange and blue with dark and light hues. I was thinking about mountains in the first two using a bright red orange and then a deep purple range after that the way the sun can hit an object And turn colors we wouldn’t expect. The first painting has two big pine trees in the forefront with the bright colors behind. The second painting is similar to the other, where it was orange and blue abstract. I was thinking of Colorado and its tall skinny pine trees. I was also thinking of some hikes I did near Sedona, Arizona with the red rocks with the cliff on the right. the third painting Has pine trees, both near and far with Pine needles on the ground. A friend in Switzerland recently shared some pictures of pines like this with a recent snowfall.. I was thinking of that and of Dr. Seuss’ trees! Dark green in the forefront and lighter greens in a distant fog with light pink and green hues in the distance.
November 26, 2025 at 2:13 PM
modernjourneyer.bsky.social
Painting in Milan one late afternoon into evening on a recent visit last October. I love what this memory gave me. - the curious people asking questions & sharing their insights, sounds of delight of children playing nearby, 6:00 ringing church bells.

#blueskyart #eastcoastkin
#sacred
Pleinère studio on location at Milan’s Sant’ Abrogio, pictures in my painting. Two palettes of watercolor, paintbrushes, old tea towels for wiping brushes, a small Spray bottle and a leather notebook of watercolor paper that travels with me. This was all on the cement floor as I painted from late afternoon into evening.
November 26, 2025 at 2:12 AM
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This painting was created on a large poster board using favorite mark making tools. When i haven’t seen a painting in a while I tend to like it more. While it was hard not knowing what the outcome would be it was fun.

#eastcoastkin #blueskyartist #ArtProcess #AbstractArt #CreativePlay #MixedMedia
Abstract painting using many shades of blue: turquoise, aqua, a cobalt blue, black, white and a grass green line. I Used mark making tools like bubble wrap and wire screens and a wooden tool with a thick tape attached to it that acted like a rubber stamp. Also used thick wiry brushes.
November 23, 2025 at 12:17 PM
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This is a painting I’d done in Rome in 2021. I don’t remember where it was. Just a random spot near a train stop.

#eastcoastkin #rome #blueskyartist #paintings #pleinerepainting #abstractexpressionism
A street corner with a brick wall and a domed religious institution whose name so forget in Rome, using colors like green, orange, purple, red, yellow and blue. Three people sit on steps in the foreground. With tall black yellow lit street lamps just beyond them. A yellow and green brick wall behind that and a sculpted marble fence above that, safeguarding the domed cathedral inside. A cross off to the right in the fading purple light.
November 22, 2025 at 12:16 PM
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The start of my morning walk. Grateful for you. Grateful for nature’s beauty.

#peaceful #meditation #natureviews #gratitude #goodmorning
November 21, 2025 at 2:40 PM
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This is Sharon MacKinnon’s painting from the Midland, Ontario Art Center. I love her style. Don’t you?
This is an abstract painting by Sharon MacKinnon of Midland, Ontario at the Art Center. Two white trees with black markings - aspen or birch, you decide - bring the eye’s attention. A background of light in pinks and yellows- other trees outlined in the distance. It could be a busy painting while the two trees bring the subject into focus with a curious look at what else is happening and bringing one’s attention.
November 19, 2025 at 11:37 PM
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Creative play for adults in a workshop I created to help re-build self-acceptance. It’s a low pressure space to unwind, try some art and reconnect with yourself. No experience required. Bring your curiosity.

I’ve lived this and it works.

#creativeplay #adultcreativity #artworkshop #pittsburgh
A picture of me and a table of paintings made from my Workshop Creative Play for Adults to help people re-build their self-acceptance through creative play. Watercolor paint tubes, brushes, a jar of water and a paint palette are on the table.
November 18, 2025 at 6:45 PM
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To give some perspective, this was my painting office last night from the previous post. I looked at the right moment to See a flash of fading sun reflecting on the water.

#eastcoastkin #blueskyartist #saturdaynight #sunset #pleinère #watercolors
A picture showing my painting palette, a recycled yogurt jar of lake water for rinsing my brushes holding down my palette paper where I mix my colors, the painting notebook on my lap, warmer socks under my black and white camouflage shoes, the rocks and the lake at Keystone Lake State Park in southwestern Pennsylvania, about 1 hour from Pittsburgh.
November 16, 2025 at 12:38 PM
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This is the case of watercolor painting at night, my most favorite time. While the sky looks light, its rumbles of rain waited to pour later last night. A spot of yellow sun in the clouds appeared and quickly I painted her. The gift was her reflection.
A watercolor painting at night I Did when the forest line became a dark purple with pines interspersed with their deep greens and rust leaf filled trees, oaks, I surmise held onto their leaves. On the right was the shore with cut green grass beyond that. The lake rippled turning this way and that - whichever way the wind blew. A spot of yellow sun appeared giving a glorious shine of reflection at Keystone Lake State Park in southwestern Pennsylvania.
November 16, 2025 at 12:27 PM
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This is what results when making do with what you have. Nature, color, paintbrushes and 40 minutes.

#dailypainting #dailypractice #nature #art #watercolor
November 15, 2025 at 12:13 PM
modernjourneyer.bsky.social
Sometimes I think I have everything I need. I forgot my palette paper. It wasn’t super cold but the rocks don’t have butt warmers. I sat on the back of a painting pad over a rock. Then I painted the forest as happy as a pea in a pod.

#MakeItWork
#naturepainting
#nature
#watercolorartist
November 14, 2025 at 12:52 PM