Lydia Ben-Natan
Q: How did you start your artistic journey?
A. From a young age I started sketching portraits,
however quickly founded my love for painting and never-looked-back! There is something very special to me about the power of pushing paint and how it can tell stories so viscerally. Fifty something years on, with each new work I am still as excited by the process and constantly evolving my creative practice.
Q: How have you developed your distinctive style of
contemporary landscape painting?
A. I think my style speaks directly to the intuitive painting
process that I have nurtured over many years. An emotive and experimental process that continues to challenge and inspire me immensely. I think also that I can’t deny the effect my own life journey has had on my painting practice. Seven years ago, I returned to live in the country after a long-life chapter in the city, and absolutely loving the
creative energy that living in nature gives me…this too probably has helped me envelop my love affair with contemporary landscape painting.
Q: What inspires you to be creative? Is there a certain place you go for inspiration?
A. There is something about open spaces in nature that moves me deeply. My painting process aims to capture
this felt connection I have with these landscapes. Freedom is the closest word I can conjure up to describe it and
my work constantly strives to capture this feeling. To elaborate, I don’t paint a specific place or photograph rather the feelings associated with my lived experience of place, and more importantly what freedom means to me.
I hope that the product of this invites viewers in to find their own unique associations and engage in a dialogue
of what open spaces means to them.
Q: Your works often evoke a sense of mystery. Could you
share how you achieve this effect in your paintings?
A. I’m very happy that you said that, evoking this sense
of mystery is important to me and an effect that I have purposefully tried to capture through both aesthetic
styling and the painting process itself. This effect has
been achieved through pushing the representative into
the realm of abstraction, playing with perspective through layering and colour choices, and ultimately evoking the viewers imagination to source their own emotive story.
Q: Do you approach your art with deliberate planning
or spontaneous inspiration and improvisation?
A. I would say a combination of the three. I start with
a basic plan but as it forms it takes on a life of its own
and can end up completely different from what I had envisaged. Sometimes inspiration comes from a single brush stroke while I’m painting, a colour combination
orI might see something within the layers that leads me
ina new direction. It is an intuitive process of choosing colours and moving between brush strokes, palette
knife and drips to capture what feels right.
Q: Can you discuss the role of colour in defining the
mood and tone in your paintings?
A. Oh absolutely! Colour plays a huge emotive role in capturing the overall atmosphere to my landscapes. My colour choice, however, is always instinctual rather than predetermined. This decision has been a source to a lot
of interesting discoveries post painting, that reveal either seasonally or emotionally what stage I was in and the actual mood I captured.
Q: As an artist, what do you hope viewers take away
from experiencing your artwork?
A. Creating a painting is like taking a journey for me,
with many highs and lows on the way until I reach the destination. I am mentally and emotionally transported there in the making and responding to what I am feeling
in the moment. My life experiences and skills help shape each piece, so it is a very personal process.
I would hope that the viewer might be transported into
my imagined landscapes and find something that sparks an emotive response.
Q: Is there a particular message or feeling you aim to
communicate through your paintings?
A. I paint from my heart, so I am continually reflecting on
how the painting makes me feel until I am satisfied that I have captured my feelings in relation to the landscape that has formed. I’ve had many people comment that my works remind them of places or times in their lives which ignites fond memories.
Q: How is your background as an art therapist influencing your approach to creating art?
A. It has only been in recent years that I became an Art Therapist and the influence it has had on my artmaking has been profound. I now have a greater self-awareness and focus on ‘being in the moment’ of experiencing.
I have adopted a ‘letting go’ approach and trusting in the process, which I have found has made my whole painting experience more fluid and relaxed.
Q: Can you explain the role of art therapy and how did you become interested in pursuing a career in this field?
A. I became interested in Art Therapy because Art has always been of fundamental importance to me throughout my life, as a form of therapy. I was going through a personal transition in my life and turned to Art Therapy.
I was blown away by how much I learnt about myself through artmaking. My discovery into Art Therapy was a life changer. In addition to being an Artist I found a platform where I can help others discover about themselves through a safe Art practice. There is so much that can be gained through artmaking from, improving general well-being to healing trauma from lived experiences.
Q: What are some of the challenges and rewards of working as an art therapist?
A. I have been working as an Art Therapist in a Drug
and Alcohol Rehabilitation Residential Facility for the
past year and it has been an absolute privilege and honour. Every day is rewarding as I get to support others to express themselves and to achieve clarity and control in their own lives. Provoking play as a means to artistic expression with everything from clay to toys is an inspiring process in itself that helps push me at times with my own artistic workings. The greatest challenge to my work is not being able to see my client’s progression after they leave the centre.
Q: What is your favourite colour? Does it describe you
as a person?
A. Favourite colour, that’s a hard one for me. I love different colours for different things but what excites me most is the pop that happens with contrasting colours. However, I do love deep Alizarin and I think it describes me as a person, passionate and deep. I also love the many shades of Green which could describe me as natural, earthy, and authentic.
Q. What art movements or artists influence you?
A. Abstract Expressionism is a movement that really resonates with me and the work I produce. I am drawn by the immediacy, spontaneity and ultimately the freedom felt from the expressive and gestural characteristics that define the movement. Across all movements however, what inspires me the most are the ways in which artists embody their full authentic self, something I will forever live by.
