Painting
Natalie Bessell
Natalie Bessell (b. 1992) grew up in San Diego, California and has lived in Australia since 2021.
Artist Profile
Natalie Bessell (b. 1992) grew up in San Diego, California and has lived in Australia since 2021. She is a multi-media artist, with a focus on painting. Featuring figurative and abstract elements, her recent work primarily involves oil pastels on wood and painted glaze on ceramics.
She draws inspiration from her life as a new mother in a semi-rural beach town on the Mornington Peninsula, in the outskirts of Melbourne. Themes of nature, fertility, motherhood, and femininity have pervaded her work both before and after she became a mother. This reflects her more general fascination with the intersection of that which is ordinary and that which is magnificent.
Artist Interview
What medium do you work with, and why have you chosen them?
I work with oil pastel on board or paper, as well as ceramics and glaze. I appreciate how tactile the pastel is—how it layers easily, has no drying time, and is rich like oil paint. Painting on ceramics with glaze is exciting because I am not alone in the process; the kiln, the clay, and I are all responsible for the end result.
How does your artwork get from initial concept to exhibition stage?
After years of obsessing over my art—what matters to me, and the story I want to tell—certain themes have emerged. I know that they will find their way into what I make. So my approach is simpler now. I sit down and start on board, paper, fired or unfired clay and work from either a tiny sketch, a photograph I have taken, or nothing at all.
Can you tell us a little more about your creative working environment/studio?
I work from the studio of my mud-brick home nestled in the dunes of the coastal hamlet of St Andrews Beach on the Mornington Peninsula. I also work in a shared ceramics studio space that has a kiln and an experienced ceramicist to help guide me.
Career Highlights
- Selected for The Athenaeum’s 23rd (2014) and 32nd (2024) Juried Exhibitions in San Diego.
- Selected for Fenton and Fenton’s Rising Artist Exhibition in Melbourne (2021).
- Has been featured in galleries worldwide and can be found in collections such as the Adina Hotel Pentridge in Melbourne and the Pearl Hotel in San Diego.
