Meet your tutor!
Meet your tutor!
I'm an abstract landscape painter who uses natural materials to tell a story of the land.
Embracing the Cornish landscape as a source of inspiration and materials, I seek an expression of how I sense the world through my abstract landscape paintings. I’m interested in the visual impact of what has been left behind, what is hidden, what will erode and what will remain indefinitely.
My process begins with an experience of the land – a ritual of observing, connecting and gathering. What is under my feet becomes my palette as the natural pigments allow me to form a tangible connection with the site.
Drawn to these landscapes, scattered with the remnants of lost communities and a memory of what was, I immerse myself in the moment of being - walking, contemplating the history of this land, wondering of its future.
The ruins of industry being reclaimed by nature create a beautiful tension in this place.
Man v Nature.
Our fleeting time here seems so insignificant yet is so damaging. We build, we take, we abandon.
And the ancient ritualistic sites still standing long after their domestic counterparts have fallen, some preserved and protected but others left to fend for themselves, they still hold a magical appeal to many who are drawn here to try to understand our ancestral wisdom.
As I walk, I feel myself disengage from busy-ness and focus on being present. I seek out high and low places to explore viewpoints and gain a sense of the topography and scale.
I capture these experiences and views with rapid sketches, filtering what is most important in that fleeting moment of time on this ancient landscape. Using limited materials and working at speed captures the essence and creates and energy to be drawn on later.
In the studio I draw on the visual and experiential memory to develop the work, using predominantly natural materials with the occasional addition of synthetic, enjoying the tension of human-made alongside nature and how this mimics the locations from which I draw inspiration. I pour natural inks and paints, enjoying the fluidity and physicality of the process, unpredictable but to some degree controllable.
Inspired by the multi-viewpoint approach explored by Peter Lanyon, the energy and freedom of the abstract expressionists, and the great Sublime, I combine observation and experience with aerial, cross-sectional and imagined views to abstract the landscape whilst provoking a sense of the familiar.
Using natural earth pigments and hand processing them creates an opening into the painting and an antidote to the desire for instant gratification. My process reconnects me to much forgotten knowledge of working with the land, a symbiotic relationship with natural resources, respectful and harmonious. Taking only what I need and offering up a token of thanks to the ground for sharing her rich bounty.
My process begins with an experience of the land – a ritual of observing, connecting and gathering. What is under my feet becomes my palette as the natural pigments allow me to form a tangible connection with the site.
Drawn to these landscapes, scattered with the remnants of lost communities and a memory of what was, I immerse myself in the moment of being - walking, contemplating the history of this land, wondering of its future.
The ruins of industry being reclaimed by nature create a beautiful tension in this place.
Man v Nature.
Our fleeting time here seems so insignificant yet is so damaging. We build, we take, we abandon.
And the ancient ritualistic sites still standing long after their domestic counterparts have fallen, some preserved and protected but others left to fend for themselves, they still hold a magical appeal to many who are drawn here to try to understand our ancestral wisdom.
As I walk, I feel myself disengage from busy-ness and focus on being present. I seek out high and low places to explore viewpoints and gain a sense of the topography and scale.
I capture these experiences and views with rapid sketches, filtering what is most important in that fleeting moment of time on this ancient landscape. Using limited materials and working at speed captures the essence and creates and energy to be drawn on later.
In the studio I draw on the visual and experiential memory to develop the work, using predominantly natural materials with the occasional addition of synthetic, enjoying the tension of human-made alongside nature and how this mimics the locations from which I draw inspiration. I pour natural inks and paints, enjoying the fluidity and physicality of the process, unpredictable but to some degree controllable.
Inspired by the multi-viewpoint approach explored by Peter Lanyon, the energy and freedom of the abstract expressionists, and the great Sublime, I combine observation and experience with aerial, cross-sectional and imagined views to abstract the landscape whilst provoking a sense of the familiar.
Using natural earth pigments and hand processing them creates an opening into the painting and an antidote to the desire for instant gratification. My process reconnects me to much forgotten knowledge of working with the land, a symbiotic relationship with natural resources, respectful and harmonious. Taking only what I need and offering up a token of thanks to the ground for sharing her rich bounty.
In conversation with Jesse Leroy Smith at the Newlyn School of Art Mentoring show, Tremenheere Gallery 2022
Artist Career
The last few years have been a period of huge transformation for Natalie. During this time she’s fully consolidated her art practice, reflecting deeply and developing exciting projects and collaborations.
Natalie completed Falmouth University foundation in 1994 but life events meant she couldn’t pursue her formal training. In 2007/8 she had an intense period of creating and selling work to support her practice and after a radical overhaul to her life in 2018 started building herself a career as an artist alongside her health professional role as a chiropractor.
She is now a full-time artist living and working in Cornwall, painting in her Bude studio and teaching at the St Ives School of Painting, as well as running her own classes locally.
She recently completed 2 years of study with the Newlyn Art School which has strengthened her sense of self, her ideas and interests and given her tools to be rigorous in her critical thinking.
A significant outcome of this is her move to investigate natural materials in an effort to reduce the use of plastic-based products and create a more considered and sustainable art practice.
In spring 2023 Natalie held her first solo show 'This Land' at the Royal Cornwall Museum which debuted her explorations into natural earth pigments and writing about her beloved Cornwall landscape.
Alongside this she ran a series of workshops and discovered a love for teaching her processes.
