Natasha Barnes is a South African artist whose abstract expressionist paintings are among the most physically immediate and emotionally direct in the gallery's collection. She paints from instinct rather than observation — absorbing her subjects in the mind before transferring them directly to canvas in confident, committed brushstrokes that build surfaces of genuine textural density. "Every painting is a mood, a reflection of what is happening in my mind. Some days are quiet but every day is a painting, a whole new way of looking at the world."
Two recurring motifs run through her entire body of work. The lotus flower — a symbol she returns to across every series — provides what she describes as endless inspiration: a flower that blooms only in adversity, in muddy water, its beauty inseparable from the difficulty of its conditions. "It is astounding that such a beautiful flower can bloom and be at ease in muddy waters. You will find this mark in all my work; look for the lotus in your painting." The crocodile appears alongside it — a creature that exists simultaneously on the surface and below it, connecting the landscapes of Africa and Asia that have shaped her visual imagination.
Her palette is vivid and her touch is bold — water-based mediums applied with the confidence of someone who has been painting seriously for three decades, the subject dictating the flow of the paint until forms move into the territory of abstraction without losing their connection to the natural world that generated them.
Her first solo show took place in South Africa in 1998. She has since shown in London, New York, Singapore, and Hong Kong, with sell-out exhibitions across multiple continents. She is South Africa's most published artist and was a finalist for the British Artist of the Year Award in 2017. Available through Creed Gallery, Ascot, for collectors across Berkshire, Surrey, and London.
