Art for Art’s Sake.
Natalie Williamson is a Yorkshire-based artist with a passion for painting people, both from life and imagined.
Seeking expressionism and abstraction within the realm of realism, her portraits have a sense of energy and depth. Working mostly in oil paints, Natalie paints to show ordinary everyday people and objects in an uplifting and positive light, bringing their beauty to the forefront.
I paint what I want people to see more of: uplifting, inspiring and aspirational images of women, particularly those often under-celebrated or overlooked. Everyday regular beauty. Women not overly sexualised, cliched or objectified. I want my portraits to whisper “you are beautiful, you are loved, you belong”
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Natalie Williamson is a painter living and working in the United Kingdom. Her expressive style is predominantly concerned with capturing and representing the female form in captivating, quietly self-confident poses.
Working in oils, Williamson pushes the boundaries of traditional realism, capturing energy and life in her pieces. Pattern, florals and graphic elements often play a role in her work as a result of her studies and experience in graphic and surface pattern design.
Williamson is driven by a desire to create artworks which are uplifting and add more reference of black beauty to the world, bringing them to the forefront in a positive light.
She has participated in numerous exhibitions in the UK and United States and her work has been purchased around the world.
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For me, portraiture is an opportunity to showcase often underrepresented beauty in a new light, leaving behind stereotypes and preconceptions.
Using subtle tones mixed using a limited palette, careful thick strokes, and quick squiggles I play with light and shadow, freedom and restraint. Dancing across the canvas surface with my brush I go back and forth, constructing and deconstructing the planes of the face.
My art revolves around positive representation, womanhood and femininity. Working in oils I create larger than life expressive portraits of females together and entwined with flowers and nature.
I paint what I want people to see more of: uplifting, inspiring and aspirational images of women, particularly those who are of various ethnicities or are often under-celebrated or overlooked. Everyday regular beauty. Women not overly sexualised, cliched or objectified. I want my portraits to whisper “you are beautiful, you are loved, you belong”
My current collection of bold, larger than life females encapsulates a collection of silently fierce females. Each one unapologetic in their presence, not afraid to take up space. Not shrinking themselves to appease others, or making themselves small. Don’t dim your light; shine!
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EDUCATION
MASTERS DEGREE, GRAPHIC DESIGN, PASS WITH DISTINCTION
University of Huddersfield: 2016 -2017
BACHELOR’S DEGREE, DESIGN AND VISUAL COMMUNICATIONS, FIRST CLASS HONOURS
University of Huddersfield: 2012 - 2016
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
In Isolation - Ingfield Centre, 2020
Works on Paper - Ingfield Centre, 2019
Repeats - 3M Buckley Centre, 2018
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
BLAZE, Ice Gallery, Wilmslow, May 2022
Bring it, AirePlace Gallery, UK, May 2022
Manchester Art Fair, Manchester Central, November 2022
Healthcare Heroes, Google Arts & Culture, Online Exhibition, 2020
BluePrint Show, Hudson Mercantile, New York, 2019
BluePrint Show, Hudson Mercantile, New York, 2018
BluePrint Show, 404, New York, 2017
Masters Degree Show, Huddersfield, 2017
Surtex, Jacob Javits Centre, New York, 2016
DSPLY, Huddersfield, UK, 2016
Surtex, Jacob Javits Centre, New York, 2015