Natalie Chapman
Natalie Chapman’s spirited figurative paintings subtly reveal the nuances of social relationships through dramatic colour and space. Much like the short-lived, but eminent artists of Synthetism in the 1880’s, Chapman creates atmosphere by using energetic hues and tensioned use of space. Indeed, flat, lurid colour is often used to pull figures apart from each other, and likewise, skewed perspective creates unstable confrontational spaces. The portrayal of interpersonal dynamics is convincing and at times, tense. The use of dark outlines, for example, gives the figures an exactness and transforms their relationship to the space they occupy. The imagery is at once captivating but unnerving through the embroilment of tenderness and tension, rising from the picture plane in a flurry of hot pinks and stark blues.
