Natalia particularly admires Old Master paintings. She is fascinated by their unsurpassed technical qualities, their mysterious representation of dramatic light and their masterful use of composition. However, she appreciates not only their technical skill but also their incredible ability to convey to a viewer the subtext of the picture hidden behind the symbolic meanings of colours and details - how the artists employed a complex visual system to assign a symbolic value to everyday objects, in a sort of visual shorthand for lengthier moral concepts and narratives. After all, many Renaissance masterpieces, with their unique placement of objects and use of distinctive colour palettes, are coded ‘books’ filled with secrets and hints. You just need to know the ciphers for these codes to understand what their author wanted to convey.
May You Live in Interesting Times series
Some of staged photographs from the "May You Live in Interesting Times" series.
In 2017-2018 Natalia created a series of forty-eight stage photographs dealing with gender inequality and the female role in society issues by re-enacting Leonardo da Vinci’s painting Lady with an Ermine(1489–1491).
The idea to create the May you Live in Interesting Times Series was influenced by the thorough research on Leonardo da Vinci’s women portraits during Natalia's PhD studies.
Natalia's interest and knowledge of art history and theory, natural curiosity, and certain objects from her private collection of antique costumes, accessories and armour, have served as inspiration and have helped Natalia to develop her project. The initial idea was to use iconic imagery of the Lady with an Ermine by Leonardo da Vinci as a recognisable ‘constant’, and play with posture and gesture, to add different layers.
In the May You Live in Interesting Times series, Natalia reconstructs the subject of Leonardo da Vinci's painting, that was an allegorical apotheosis of the female role in Renaissance society. Reading a system of signs and symbols of objects and colours produce the meaning and interpretation of Natalia's work.
Model - Olga Bluma.
A few years ago Natalia’s vision has started to drastically deteriorate. She can now only see the blurry silhouettes with the double vision effect. This was one of the reasons why she started to use the superimposition technique (in which two images are simultaneously visible over each other) in her art practice.
In 2022-2023 Natalia created a series of collages by combining the iconic image of the Lady with an Ermine by Leonardo da Vinci with her images of staged photographs. The concept of juxtaposition creates thought-provoking metaphors for the viewer to react to. By linking one image with another, a resulting third meaning is ultimately conceived, metaphorically. This third metaphorical meaning acts as a device that allows the viewer to choose new conclusions.
Secrets Breed Secrets series
The Secrets Breed Secrets series on Renaissance Masters is work in progress. Natalia started this series during COVID-19 Lockdowns and continue to crate new works for it using self-portraits in gas masks.
In this project - some thoughts and reflections which were made during the Covid era. In a dramatically changing world there are still some constants, which accompany and help us survive in difficult times – love, art and sense of humour.
In this project - some thoughts and reflections which were made during the Covid era. In a dramatically changing world there are still some constants, which accompany and help us survive in difficult times – love, art and sense of humour.
Colour Studies series
“To see a World in a Grain of Sand
And a Heaven in a Wild Flower,
Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand
And Eternity in an hour”
William Blake
The contextual ideas for the Colour Studies series are encoded through the symbolic meaning of colours and flowers.
Natalia’s work is never quite what first appears to be. Her images depict meticulously controlled compositions characterised by a classical aesthetic, tinged with poetic undertones of timeless desire and romantic.
For the Colour Studies series Natalia arranged fragile flowers (they have many hidden meanings) into specific groupings to create developed meanings that invite the viewer to participate in ‘decoding’ the symbolic sense. As Natalia says: “What could be more enchanting than a mystery? I suppose, only the love for the mystery and the quest which one embarks on in trying to solve it.”
Model: Olga Bluma
Natalia’s work is never quite what first appears to be. Her images depict meticulously controlled compositions characterised by a classical aesthetic, tinged with poetic undertones of timeless desire and romantic.
For the Colour Studies series Natalia arranged fragile flowers (they have many hidden meanings) into specific groupings to create developed meanings that invite the viewer to participate in ‘decoding’ the symbolic sense. As Natalia says: “What could be more enchanting than a mystery? I suppose, only the love for the mystery and the quest which one embarks on in trying to solve it.”
Model: Olga Bluma
Still Life Series
In my Still Life series I create works that evoke Renaissance painting. I mix classical and modern aspects, and my artworks are multi-layered, containing their own little secrets that viewers are invited to discover.
The practice of depicting food and feasting in art stretches back from the Middle Ages to ancient Greece and Rome, where banquets and bacchanals were consuming passions celebrated in literature, painting, and mosaics. The symbolism of food and drink has roots in classical literature. Fruits, nuts, herbs and grain are discussed in treatises on farming and natural history, and they appear widely in mythology as attributes of gods and goddesses – eg grapes for Bacchus, the god of wine, and a sheaf of corn or wheat for Ceres, the grain goddess - and as metaphors for virtue and vice.
In the tradition of the still-life painting, many of the objects have individual symbolic meanings – they remind the viewer of the fleeting nature of earthly pleasures, the fragility of human life and the brevity of our existence. For example, books represent the range of human knowledge, while the musical instruments suggest the pleasures of the senses, “Because music was invented to keep spirits happy, as does wine” (Ripa in Meagher, 2009, p.3).
Fragile flowers have many hidden meanings. I arranged flowers for every photograph into specific groupings to create a developed meaning for the viewer to decode. On first viewing of these staged photographs, we are attracted by flowers. Their beauty is shown in an ideal state of bloom – but only in order to recall the vanities of earthy life, which is fleeting in nature. However, some Renaissance artists demonstrated the ability of art to freeze time and grant flowers eternal life.
The practice of depicting food and feasting in art stretches back from the Middle Ages to ancient Greece and Rome, where banquets and bacchanals were consuming passions celebrated in literature, painting, and mosaics. The symbolism of food and drink has roots in classical literature. Fruits, nuts, herbs and grain are discussed in treatises on farming and natural history, and they appear widely in mythology as attributes of gods and goddesses – eg grapes for Bacchus, the god of wine, and a sheaf of corn or wheat for Ceres, the grain goddess - and as metaphors for virtue and vice.
In the tradition of the still-life painting, many of the objects have individual symbolic meanings – they remind the viewer of the fleeting nature of earthly pleasures, the fragility of human life and the brevity of our existence. For example, books represent the range of human knowledge, while the musical instruments suggest the pleasures of the senses, “Because music was invented to keep spirits happy, as does wine” (Ripa in Meagher, 2009, p.3).
Fragile flowers have many hidden meanings. I arranged flowers for every photograph into specific groupings to create a developed meaning for the viewer to decode. On first viewing of these staged photographs, we are attracted by flowers. Their beauty is shown in an ideal state of bloom – but only in order to recall the vanities of earthy life, which is fleeting in nature. However, some Renaissance artists demonstrated the ability of art to freeze time and grant flowers eternal life.
Prints are available in different sizes and techniques