A Playful Symphony Of Colour And Illusion
What do the great Dutch masters, pop surrealism and Scrabble have in common? No, it's not a trick question, although moder trompe l'oeil virtuoso Natalie Featherston readily uses trickery to give her well-studied subjects a fresh dimension. What at first glance can seem like a quirky assemblage of lost-and-found paraphernalia, teasingly reveals its meaning - and startling mastery - upon closer inspection. The words are carefully chosen and the messages bold. The ingeniously layered details are not glued but painstakingly painted on canvas. Through humour and playfulness, familiar references gradually envelop the viewer in a bittersweet mist of nostalgia.
A former cellist who inadvertently discovered painting in the 1990s, Natalie gave up a bright career in music to reconnect with her creative muse in art classes across New York, before taking a six-year apprenticeship with Michael Aviano. On the surface, the two art practices seem worlds apart. 'Basically, I traded eight hours a day alone in a practice room for 10 hours alone in an art studio; the only difference is now I get to listen to podcasts while I work', she quips. The cello may have been left behind, but she was able to carry vital lessons she had learned as a musician to her artist studio: 'Representational painting requires repetition to learn technique. You can play the same scale out of tune over and over, but practising it in tune for half the time produces a more effective result', she points out. She loves working her illusionist magic on found objects and trivia that strangely resonate with people, from which she makes models - which she considers the most creative end of her work, as opposed to the actual painting. The weirdest find currently gracing her inspiration board is a stubby stump of stick, a part adorable, part terrifying boogie man she's been saving for a future forest scene. She always has a couple of ideas marinating in a corner of her studio - models laid out, sketches and transfer drawings. Unlike many painters who work in high-definition realism, Natalie enjoys working from life, a lesson she traces back to her art teacher, a firm believer that 'art is nature filtered through a personality. The artist is the filter, and I enjoy making observations and experiencing the model in real time rather than the step removed from a photo', she confesses. More challenging than technical skill, is actually finding what to paint. 'Skill comes down to having a skilled teacher, deliberate practice and paint manipulation. But choosing what to paint with those hard-earned skills is much, much more difficult, she maintains Pop art and surrealism have both left their creative marks on her work, as is evident in her comics series, as well as the narrative and composition of her collage paintings. But her "all-time OG of trompe loeil is none other than little-known 17th-century painter Cornelius Glisbrechts who, among other things, popularised paintings of the backs of paintings.
There's a special place in the pantheon of art history for the obscure maestros of this rather niche art movement, and there's a clear reason for that, according to Natalie: "There's a shift in perspective for the viewer in the way they experience the art. It's unique to trompe l'oeil - that moment where they're suspended between what's real and what's painted". If growth largely happens outside our comfort zone, a true trompe l'oeil gem brings with it curiosity and suspense in spades. In Queen of the Night, a black crow sports a glorious gown and a flower crown, a strange vision caught between dream and nightmare that, in all its striking bizarreness, never fails to put a smile on one's face. Dominated by a serene, bookish beauty framed by twigs the artist found in her backyard, Night Owls makes it hard to fathom that every deceptive, deftly to a woman dressed in an elegant pink gown - but this is hardly a period romance. A mysterious beast covers her eyes with its anthropomorphic hands.
Painted on top of her dress, the woman's rib cage and heart feel like they've been pulled out of her chest, but she holds the key. In this dark, enchanted fairy tale, is she in control? l ask Natalie whether, much like her leap of faith from music to painting, she still tends to follow her heart; or does she feel that, as we grow older, we are taught to put our hearts in cages and follow reason? 'I think it's a balance. There's a good reason our hearts are caged - can you imagine following every impulse that strikes your fancy? For me, it's more about knowing when to take that leap, and whether or not you're prepared to pay the cost. As we get older we're less likely to take risks, but I feel like that painting inspires following your wilder desires. So, what would she advise other artists thinking of taking the jump? "I slashed and burned my career as a cellist and never looked back - but that might not work for everyone. I knew if things didn't pan out I had an orchestra job waiting for me. If you're going to make a catastrophic change. I think it's easier to just do it. No safety net. Sink or swim. Fully committing to a plan of action has a certain boldness and magic in it*, she admits.
If she tends to embrace a balance in life with age, her work seems to be getting bolder. Her many achievements - which include awards from the Art Renewal Center and our very own Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize, while collectors of her work include filmmaker J.J. Abrams and shock rocker extraordinaire Alice Cooper seem to have taken the edge off trying to create art for commercial value or external validation. Instead, Natalie revels in the simple pleasure of painting for herself. From period references to pop art, the women she portrays are evocatively sensuous, voluptuous and, despite a soft spot for chocolate or matching furniture with the art on the walls, a force of nature on the canvas. "She wasn't fragile like a flower, she was fragile like a bomb' reads the caption under a ponytailed pin-up ready to set the world ablaze in BOOM!, a tribute to the artist's cherished vintage comics with an illusionist twist - a plausibly 3D-looking lighter with an open flame at the bottom of the 'page". One of her favourite paintings, The Transparent Heart, a homage to her favourite Dutch still life painters, is "classically appealing, but also has layers". The work grabs the viewer with a twisted spin on the proverbial lady in red - one free of the male gaze. With her vision partially obscured by a blindfold and one eye looking straight at the viewer, she has cut out her injured heart with a pair of cuticle scissors, revealing an open and transparent space. But she seems triumphant about the excision, channelling her inner strength into one magnetic look.
Staying open to new concepts through teaching workshops and engaging with fellow art enthusiasts online, this accomplished art illusionist thrives on building a creative community to share inspirations and preoccupations beyond the canvas. It's no wonder that a lot of her new artworks deal with connections,
"The emotions, actions and experiences that bind us together, in her own words. Love, desire and romance, all take centre stage - but count on Natalie to always serve them up with something a little extra spicy.