Description
Natalie started painting professionally shortly after moving to Shropshire in 2003, following her completion of a Fine Arts Degree and a post-grad in Stage and Set design.
Growing up in Cheshire, Natalie had a love of drawing from an early age. When her parents opened a florist shop in Nantwich, any unsold flowers were taken home and that’s when she started to draw them; mostly to scale and in coloured pencil-but that was the moment!
Natalie’s parents are artistic in their own way: her Dad was a joiner so was happy to pass on concepts of perspective and her Mum enjoyed drawing and painting. Both were very encouraging, always providing materials when it often was not easy financially. For Natalie, becoming an artist never seemed like a decision she had to make – it was an inevitability.
Georgia O’Keefe is an obvious influence, with her use of colour and form of simple objects as an inspiration. Similarly, Natalie was captured by Karl Blossfeldt for his beautiful symmetry in nature and its presentation. In addition, the early 17th-century Dutch painters, such as Ambrosius Bosschaert, have influenced Natalie with their magnificent sense of drama and use of light and shade.
From sketch pad drawings as a child, Natalie progressed to painting oversize oils of sumptuous, magnified flowers. She believes the scale of her work was influenced by her time working as a scenic artist – a role she relished, and which took her around the world.
Nature first and foremost has the greatest impact on Natalie. In addition to flowers and seeds, her direction has moved towards birds and her fascination with their freedom and flight.
Current pieces incorporate story-like elements, ideas gained from dilapidated country houses seen while out on walks with her dog and the curiosities she finds in friend’s houses. These help to create a secret narrative.
Natalie aims to convey the feelings and sense of pleasure she feels while being surrounded by nature, even the simplest of things stir emotions. She wants the viewer to have an experience that encompasses sensations beyond that of the image itself. Therefore the scale of her work is important. By enlarging the scale, the nature of the subject is intensified and enables the viewer to become surrounded by the beauty of the subject.
Natalie’s technique had developed through intense observation and trial and error. There is always room for development, and she enjoys this process of challenging herself.
Her work has currently been shown in Tokyo, Singapore, London, New York, and Australia, as well as locally in Shropshire. She had an article published in Artists and Illustrator’s magazine in 2007, Shropshire Living Magazine 2021, and has delivered several masterclasses at the prestigious West Dean College, in Chichester.
All paintings are available as limited edition giclee prints
Commissions welcome
Exhibition History
Art Fairs
The Affordable Art Fair, London, New York, Singapore, Tokyo, Australia, Hong Kong, Brussels and Spinningfields Art Fair, Manchester.
Residencies
Nature in Art, Gloucestershire
West Dean College, Chichester
Past Exhibitions
Gallery 24/25 Cork Street, London
Ingo Finke Gallery, London
Malvern Theatre
Saltburn on sea gallery
Birmingham city gallery
Royal Institute of Oil Painters, London
Shrewsbury Museum and Gallery
New Arts Gallery, Letchfield
New Greenham Arts
Fusion Gallery, Jackfield
ArtLink Gallery, Hull
Gallery Redbill, Chester
Blue Door, Much Wenlock
Calendar and greetings cards with Medici
Royal academy, London
Le Petit Blanc, Cheltenham
Wet paint Gallery, Cirencester
Gallery 24, Cork Street.
Volte Galleries, Wolverhampton.
IV Gallery, Cork Street.
Landmark Arts Centre, London.
Solihull Arts Café, Birmingham.
Gallery SCA, Shrewsbury.
The White Horse Gallery, Banbury
Quantum Contemporary Art, Battersea
Great Northern Hotel
The Lanesborough Hotel, Hyde Park
Training
Post Graduate certificate in Stage Set design, Welsh Collage of Music and Drama.
BA(Hons) Fine art, University of Central Lancashire.
