Amellia Hausmann ’21 Wins National Recognition for Art

Her winning portfolio, entitled “Sun Dried,” transports the eye to imagery that captures how sunlight plays with fabric, says Amellia. “I worked to accentuate the warm colors in the faces and to keep the highlights on the fabric crisp to really give the sense of a bright, warm, summer day. 
 
“My overall goal was to utilize the interesting colors and shapes that bright, direct sunlight creates against fabric to create beautiful, nostalgic scenes so that even if the viewer has never experienced the scene, the piece transports them to a warm, familiar environment," says Amellia.

“All of my art is a mixture of inspiration I find from artists I love. I try to always have one realistic element and then the rest I try to experiment,” she says.

In addition to the Gold Medal Portfolio Award, Amellia won a Gold Medal and the American Visions Award for her piece “Colorful Breeze.” She will be recognized during a virtual ceremony in June, and her work will hang in an exhibition in New York City. Now in its 98th year, the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards are the nation's longest-running and most prestigious scholarship and recognition program for young artists and writers in grades 7–12.

Winning this award, Amellia is in the company of Stephen King, Sylvia Plath, Truman Capote, Andy Warhol, and Amanda Gorman, all notable alumni of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. 

Amellia has been at Hutchison since junior kindergarten, with a two-year break in middle school, and says she became serious about art when she entered upper school.

“I’ve always enjoyed art, but I started taking it more seriously once I was in high school. I always liked crafts and creative things growing up, but once I began taking more structured, serious classes like advanced honors drawing during my sophomore year, I began to realize how much I loved it.”

Amellia’s passion for art and creating extends past the classroom. She has her own business outside of school called Art by Amellia where she sells original paintings and takes commissions, which she says includes a lot of custom pet portraits. She will attend Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) next year where she plans to major in User Experience (UX Design), which includes a mixture of technology, marketing, and design. She also wants to minor or double major in painting.