“In a break from my usual practice, all of the works from n. cloud. age – A mass of clouds, are painted on paper and all with virtually no preparation or forethought. We all have stressors in life and sometimes the effect of even minor things can be cumulative. In the second half of this year, there were a few things taking up a lot of my headspace, leaving me with little patience or energy for the routines of my usual painting practice – being in the places I paint, building up source material and sketches and building layers of paint over time – waiting for things to dry, returning often to things, taking time to get to know them.” “In stark contrast, these introspective, impatient paintings reflect my need for an immediate result and were therapeutic ‘downloads’ at a time when concentrating on one more thing felt beyond me. No wandering, no source photos or sketches, almost no prior thought to what I intended to paint. I put a raw sienna wash down first and once dry I sketched a horizon. What followed was cloudage – masses of clouds hanging over places that are familiar, if not accurate depictions of the country that surrounds us and the ever-present comfort of the ocean. Contemplations, maybe of the fundamentals in life, climate and change… and what to do about that.” “Wind and weather reveal their characters only by the effect they have on their surroundings. We learn the nature of the wind by the shape of clouds, smoke drifting and branches bending. Equally we might better understand ourselves by the marks left on us by the things we ‘weather’ in life. Whilst using my daily painting practice as therapy I have both zoned out from my thoughts and tuned in to the secret workings of the weather, vast and intimate all at once.” To see a full listing of Natalie’s work for n. cloud. age | A mass of clouds click here.
