Amanda W. Crews

"Nimue"
© Amanda W. Crews
Colour Pencil and Metallic Pen on Paper

The daughter of artists, Amanda started drawing just as soon as she could hold a crayon, and produced her first signed oil painting at the age of two. Her favourite subjects, even then, were angels, faeries, mermaids and ballerinas; and she drew them everywhere, as her parents will still attest. In high school, she discovered the music of the Beatles and Fleetwood Mac, and won a scholastic award in art for a portrait of a pen-pal. In 1977, the young artist was listening to the timeless music of Fleetwood Mac's "Rumours", and drawing, painting and writing with much inspiration from George Harrison and Stevie Nicks. She held well-received showings upon graduation from both high school and college. Now, 40 years later, Rumours on the Edge of 17, a special webpage created just for Stevie Nicks and Fleetwood Mac fans by Leaping Princess Studios, is proud to display a few of Amanda's drawings from the time of Fleetwood Mac's Rumours Tour, when the artist was on the "edge of seventeen".  These fine pen and ink pieces are signed with her maiden name, Amanda L. Walters.

In 1981, Amanda married her true love, and began drawing as Amanda W. Crews. That same year, she created Lake Lady Productions. Since then, Amanda has done striking pastel portraits which hang in private homes across the United States, and cover art for a musical audiocassette. Her work has been published in several newsletters, and she has contributed to the illustration of a Beauty and the Beast fanzine, "Second Stories", by Deborah Martin, once available at Martin Enterprises. She has also created logo and banner art for websites, and been profiled in “Talent In Motion” magazine.

Amanda's preferred subject matter is always mystical fantasy, and her subjects continue to be angels and faeries; but she now includes castles, kings and goddesses, and sometimes, even a beautiful daemon. She has also created designs specially released for Christmas and Halloween.  She is discovering a mythology all her own, a pantheon of archetypes. Amanda's love of faerie tales and legends continues to inspire her, and her personal mythology continues to evolve.

 

LEAPING PRINCESS STUDIOS

Come in...to
Mina's Castle
...and you may never be able to leave...

"Tower of the Sorceress"
© Amanda W. Crews
Acrylic on Canvasboard

Through these pages, I hope to present to you some beautiful things you may not have seen before.

My interests are in art, such as Lake Lady Productions, fantasy realism, the Pre-Raphaelites, and the Romantics.

I enjoy beautiful clothes, including jewelry, and fabulous treasures are to be found at my friends' sites, Camias Jewelry Designs and Designs By Bear.

I love music, such as the Beatles, especially George Harrison (good-night, my love...), Fleetwood Mac and Stevie Nicks, Kate Bush, Melanie, LOVE RiOT, which later evolved into Milkshake, Beethoven and Tchaikovsky.

My three favourite actors are the incredibly talented Ron Perlman, Gary Oldman, and Johnny Depp. I adore all three of them, and hope to eventually post a links page for sites devoted to them, as there's some really great stuff out there.

The TV is always on at my house, and some of my favourite TV shows are NBC's 6 seasons of "Grimm", Fox's "Sleepy Hollow" (though the first 2 seasons were far better than the 3rd because our lovable female lead, Abby Mills, played beautifully by Nicole Beharie, was unceremoniously removed from the story...WHY???), Syfy's "GhostHunters" (though the best ones were with Grant Wilson), and cooking shows, especially anything with Chef Gordon Ramsey. CW's 15 seasons of "Supernatural" is the soundtrack of my life, it's on almost every day. With one of the most incredible fan bases ever, they're still going strong, even after the final episode! My latest obsession is the internet's "Baby Yoda," or GROGU, the adorable little padawan from Star Wars' "The Mandalorian."

We also hope to re-build a section on faerie tales and myths, such as The Arthurian Legends, Beauty & the Beast and the masterpiece of horror stories, Bram Stoker's "Dracula".

 

 

 

 

LAKE LADY PRODUCTIONS, Est. 1981

 

"Faerie Glen"
© Amanda W. Crews
Colour Pencil on Paper

Lake Lady Productions was created in 1981 by artist Amanda W. Crews, as a means of sharing her art with family and friends. Today, her art has traveled worldwide. Much of her work is based on mythology, faerie tales and folklore, especially that of the British Isles, France, and eastern Europe. Her work has been available on Note Cards, as Ready-to-Frame Prints on paper or canvas, and some of her designs were available on quality cotton T-shirts, as well as natural canvas Tote Bags and Aprons. Fans have snapped up most of these items, but we hope to offer more in the future.

In the early 1980's, a series of Amanda’s "Faerie Portraits" exhibited and promptly sold at a gallery in North Carolina. They have been a popular item ever since, distinctive in style, often copied, but never duplicated.  Over the years, she has created both Faerie Portraits and striking Pastel Portraits from photographs by commission, which now hang in private homes across the United States.  In 2001, Amanda produced her first official "Nixie": a "Faerie Portrait" inspired by rock icon Stevie Nicks, at the requests of Amanda's friends who were also fans. A canvas print of this piece, "Rigantona", was donated to the Wild Heart Affair 2001 in San Francisco to help fans celebrate Stevie's birthday; this popular design was available on Note Cards and Ready-To-Frame Canvas Prints, as well as becoming our Leaping Princess Studios Signature Art.

In the 1990's, Amanda's work began to focus on the creation of stationery and cards for reproduction.  Starting out with single-colour prints, she has now produced multi-color hand prints and full-colour computer prints.

In the year 2000, Lake Lady Productions made the gigantic cyber-leap onto the worldwide web, opening this online gallery, Leaping Princess Studios. In 2001, she was honored to be the Feature Artist at Spirithunter On-line Magazine.