I’m Natalie, an artist living and working in Thame, Oxfordshire. I grew up in Twickenham, Southwest London, which is where my love of art began. As a child, when asked by adults what I liked doing, the answer was always ‘drawing and making things’ and it is something I've never grown out of, thankfully. It can often feel that the world would rather we did grow out of the arts. Curriculums rarely value them as much as the ‘sensible’ subjects even though creativity is so good for our well-being. As adults it can become something that we shy away from.

So I did not study art. At 18 I started training to be a nurse but swiftly discovered it was not for me. At 19 I began an art foundation course at Chelsea art school. I wanted so much to learn good drawing and sculpting skills but what I learned was that the fit was not right. My tutor explained that these skills are no longer required in art, that the world has been there and done that and moved on. So without further ado, I left. At 21 I studied Psychology and under a lot of pressure to own that so-thought-important piece of paper, I pushed on through and successfully completed the course. Alongside all of these courses I worked many different jobs including retail, bar work, archiving and office work.

Feeling somewhat lost, the one constant throughout that time was indeed still drawing and making things. I did several ad hoc short courses in drawing, sculpting, pottery and illustration but for the most part I am self-taught. I love figurative art, whether that be animals or humans, and so observed with deep interest the life around me and recreated those observations from my own perspective in the form of pencil and paint whenever I could. I experimented with different materials and techniques, I read books, I went to galleries, I took part in the odd exhibition and art fair, I sold a few paintings and sculptures but never allowed myself to be fully immersed in the dream because it wasn’t ‘sensible’.

Becoming a mum to my two daughters shook my world and turned it on its head. Aside from no longer having time or energy for creativity, emotional struggles began to set in because they can and do catch up with us eventually. In more recent years art has increasingly become a therapeutic tool which is a side of it that I am fascinated by, so much so that I studied it at the Institute for Arts in Therapy and Education in London for two years and gained a Diploma in the Therapeutic Arts. This was a hugely rich learning experience where I gained many skills and insights that I apply to my art work and to tutoring sessions. I am now working at Renboga Art Centre where these skills are valuable in working with the community and others going through difficulties. Above all, I have learned to aim for the rewards in the process of making and not just for the end result. I value it now more than ever and, having worked through my struggles, I am finally allowing myself to work as the artist who has followed me around all my life.