Amanda Dunbar was recently featured as "Person of the Week" on ABC World News.
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Amanda Dunbar is one of the most talked about, collectible and dynamic young artists in recent history. Born in 1982 in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada, she moved with her family to Allen, Texas, nearly a decade ago.

At the end of the eighth grade, she signed up for an after-school art class, where the instructor asked the class to paint something - anything - so that he could gauge their skill level. Amanda picked up a brush and created Mother's Touch, a portrait in the French impressionist style of a woman in a blue dress drying her small daughter after her bath. The impressed instructor called her parents - and the rest is art history.

Amanda's experiences, passion and empathy are exquisitely captured in oils on her canvases. Her love of humanity is seen in paintings that depict the celebrations of life and the emotional bonds between young and old. And her lush landscapes, often inspired by her travels, are reminiscent of European impressionists.

A serious student of art, Amanda has traveled abroad the past two summers, studying under the tutelage of some of America's best-known art teachers, including Yale University's Robert Reed and Southern Methodist University's Greg Warden. Last summer, she studied at France's Pont Aven School of Art, the acclaimed institution founded by Paul Gaugin. More recently, she returned from Italy where she studied Renaissance Period art and drawing, and was inspired by the rich history and landscapes of the country.

At 20, Amanda Dunbar also is a businesswoman, with plans to open her own Dallas gallery and artist studio, Galerie Papillion, in Fall 2003. Her paintings sell in galleries in Portland, Chicago, Minneapolis, New Jersey, and Exposures Fine Art in Sedona, Arizona. She is also completing her art history degree at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. In addition to her studies and painting, she runs a nonprofit organization, Amanda's Angel Alliance, which has given some $350,000 to children's charities.

Amanda has made numerous national TV appearances, including Oprah (twice) and Dick Clark's The Other Half, and she has been featured in print publications, including TEEN People and Southern Living, and in top daily newspapers. She is profiled in The Artist in Me documentary produced by Mattel and marketed in its "Barbie as Rapunzel" CD.