A native of Sherborn, Massachusetts, Amy Peters Wood has been painting since childhood. After attending Milton Academy in Milton, Massachusetts, where art teachers gave special attention to fostering her impressive talents, Wood proved to be a lifelong and determined student. The multi-talented artist continued on to the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Mills College in Oakland California, where she studied zoology, physics, and art. Wood also attended classes at the Rhode Island School of Design, Maine College of Art, and Decordova Museum School, where she concentrated on scientific illustration. Although not endowed with mathematical skills of the same caliber as her artistic instincts, a passion for wildlife led her to Tufts Veterinary School where she earned a Doctorate in Veterinary Medicine. Woods cared for animals for over three decades in Midcoast Maine.
In 1996, Wood settled in Georgetown, Maine, and pursued art full-time. A jack of all trades, Wood followed her passion for the environment around the world—notably on a three-year-long global exploration with her husband, Phillip Shelton, and her beloved cat. By the time the trio returned home to Maine in 2003, Wood’s inspiration from her travels was plentiful and provided rich inspiration for her work.
Using egg tempera, Wood plays with perspective and toys with the viewer's conception of space and place. Undoubtedly, Wood’s knowledge of biology aids her detailed portrayal of the natural world. The aerial component of her pieces could be attributed to her exploration by sea plane. Details of Wood’s paintings appear to both minimize and exaggerate simultaneously. Lush greens and spindly branches offset twisting scenes of modernity and civilization. Picturesque New England houses, sailboats and familiar scenes of town centers offset rich Atlantic waters— pulling onlookers in with an alluring magnetism. Many pieces feature stretches of North Haven’s Main Street and views of Pulpit Harbor. Wood’s work is dreamlike, in part, because of her use of iridescent colors and warped scenery. The line between elements imagined and real is often fine, allowing viewers to enjoy a delightful uncertainty.
Wood’s work has been shown in galleries across Maine and abroad, including shows at the Flat Iron Gallery in Portland, Maine and Art Nouveau Noumea in New Caledonia.
Wood now divides her time between North Haven and Georgetown, Maine, as well as Dunnellon, Florida. She remains adventurous and spends time flying and exploring remote corners of Maine in Iwalani, an amphibious float plane, designed by her husband and his son.