After completing a degree in fine art and sculpture at Norwich School of Art and Design in 2000, Natalie Bell undertook a degree in ceramics and glass at Sunderland University. Natalie is now based in Newcastle upon Tyne.
Natalie Bell is inspired by the ideas of science and interior spaces. She uses acrylic on canvas to create miniature landscapes. Fascinated by different layering techniques, either applying washes of translucent white or conversely, by removing paint to reveal the pigment beneath, Natalie likes to either ‘build-up’ a piece or to ‘cut-it down’. This process allows her to enrich the painting and to control the semi-obscured history of the painting, revealing snippets of colour beneath. Organic and technological forms dominate Natalie’s compositions. They are multi-layered and full of activity, driving the viewer to think about various elements that shape and enhance life.
This is how Natalie feels about her work: ‘Made solid and of human scale, my works are uncannily familiar to me, an expression of my inner workings, a realising of the micro-organisms and chemicals, hormones and genes that construct and control life.
'This is my visual language with which I'm attempting to interpret and clarify a huge world, on a tiny scale.’
