Natalie Dowse

Biography

Natalie Dowse works from the close examination of the photographic image or extracted film still, derived from the surveillance, documentation and scrutiny of various locations. Carefully selected resource material is either used in isolation, in sequence or spliced together to make fictional scenarios, which form the basis of paintings, drawings, installations and video.

The impression of the split-second moment captured in time is often accentuated by the composition and framing of the snapshot, whether real or digitally manipulated, questioning the validity and truth of the lens-based image. By using these photographic sources, Natalie is elevating the status of the original image by drawing on the considered value and the historic eminence of painting and image production.

Natalie Dowse lives and works in Portsmouth and has exhibited her work nationally and internationally. Her work is in public and private collections, including the Jonathan Vickers Collection, the Robert Priseman Collection at Falmouth Art Gallery and the Priseman-Seabrook Collection. Her work is also featured on the BBC’s Your Paintings website of the UK National Collection.

Natalie was the recipient of the Jonathan Vickers Fine Art Award, a year-long residential project which culminated in her solo show Skimming the Surface at Derby Museum and Art Gallery. She was awarded an international residency to Riga, Latvia, by the Arts Council England International Fellowship programme in partnership with Braziers International Artists’ Workshops. Natalie is a graduate of Falmouth School of Art (BA Fine Art) and the University of Portsmouth (MA Fine Art). She is also an artist member and board member of Contemporary British Painting.

See Natalie’s Lockdown Interview here -

About this work

The Song of the Siren painting are again from a lager series the was started during the first lockdown. They are based, in part, on the notion of the Siren from Ancient Greek mythology. The Sirens use their exquisite song to lure sailors to wreck their ships on the rocks after falling in love with their beauty and song, and consequently taken to their death. They are also loosely inspired by the ‘Song to the Siren’ by Tim Buckley and then later This Mortal Coil. Painted from the viewpoint of someone immersed in the sea rather than from the safety of the shore, these paintings are both enticing and beautiful, yet laced, perhaps, with an unsettling menace that reminds us of the unpredictability and force of nature.