Exploring Rurban Art – Natasha Newton
Posted on | May 15, 2009 | No Comments
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Within the context of rural and rurban development, there also needs to exist a discussion about what rural and rurban culture is, and how contemporary art practices can engage with and showcase rural issues and places.
With this in mind, The Rurban Fringe is pleased to introduce Natasha Newton, the second artist interviewed for this limited online series dedicated to exploring rurban art.
Tell us a bit about yourself and your work.
I am a full-time artist and illustrator, currently living and working in Suffolk, a beautiful county in the east of England.
Making art is something I’ve always done – since I was a very young child – and even from a fairly young age I was selling my artwork and crafts to friends and family.
I’ve always been quite entrepreneurial and liked the idea of running my own business – being my own boss, so to speak! Becoming a full-time professional artist was a long process … and for many years I had a part-time job to help support myself while I worked on building up my reputation and skill as an artist.
I started by exhibiting locally in small art shows, and then gradually moved on to galleries. As my reputation grew, I noticed I was gaining more commissions. I was also selected for prestigious exhibitions in London and even won an award at one of them, which helped to get my name out there.
In 2005, I launched my website and finally discovered how great the internet was for promoting and selling my work. I think it’s probably the best thing I ever did in terms of the success of my career. The opportunities that have come my way, and the volume of sales – not to mention the fact that I now sell to collectors all over the world – is largely due to showing my work online.
In the spring of 2007, I finally realized that I could no longer juggle another job alongside my art – I was at the stage where I was selling so many paintings and gaining so many commissions that I had to devote myself full-time to it.
It was always my dream to be able to do that, so even though it was incredibly scary becoming fully self-employed, it was also a very exciting time.
How would you define your art? What are the influences on your work?
It’s always been very hard for me to define my art – I often prefer to let others do that for me!
I very much have my own style, it’s sometimes quite graphic or illustrative, with folk art, surrealistic and, at times, abstract influences. I’ve been told that my forest paintings are very ’storybook,’ and that I have a slightly melancholic, edgy style.
As for rural influences … definitely! I’m surrounded by the most beautiful countryside here in Suffolk and it certainly inspires me and finds its way into my work. But my paintings are in no way entirely ‘Suffolk-based,’ I’m inspired by many different things and many different landscapes. A lot of my ideas come from books and magazines, illustrations, photography, films, and even other artists.
Whenever I see something that sparks an idea for a painting, I either write/sketch it down or file it away … sometimes the ideas won’t be used for years, but it’s nice to know they will be there when I need them!
Living in a rurban area, how do you promote yourself and your work? What is the local response to your art?
I’ve spoken a little bit about how I promote myself and my work via the internet – the most useful ways of doing this that I have found are my website, my art blog, MySpace page and, most recently, Twitter, which seems to be an excellent tool to use to keep friends, fans, and collectors informed of what’s going on or when I have new work available and so on. Etsy has also been a wonderful site for promoting my work, and I sell a lot of smaller pieces there, such as original illustrations, customized Moleskine notebooks, and smaller paintings on canvas and woodblock.
What I love about selling via the internet is that it gives the artist complete control and direct contact with their buyers, and I think the buyers love this aspect of it too … they can speak to the person making the work rather than buying through a gallery and perhaps having very little knowledge of the artist who made the work.
Yet having said that, I also enjoy selling through galleries, and many repeat customers have found me this way- they initially bought some of my work through a gallery and then looked up my website, and now follow my progress via the internet! They often end up commissioning work from me directly or buying pieces they’ve seen on my website, and it’s great for me to have this contact with my collectors.
Another good idea is to have an email mailing list and use it to send out occasional newsletters to customers, letting them know when you have a show coming up, or when new work is available, and so on. It’s an easy way of keeping your collectors informed of what’s going on and people seem to appreciate that.
As for the local response to my art, it has been very good; the local galleries in Suffolk are very supportive and I have many collectors in Suffolk.
I think it’s important to build up a good local following as well as a national or international one.
Is there a plight of rural artists? Do you see any perceived challenges or opportunities as opposed to working as an urban artist?
I guess that rural artists sometimes feel more isolated than artists who work in the city – I’ve noticed that artists in London, for example, seem to be much more able to get together and work easily, and it stands to reason that in a city there are many more artists than in a much smaller area.
In rural communities, we tend to rather spread out and it’s not so easy to just meet up on an informal basis. Also, being in a city probably leads to more opportunities to exhibit … there are more galleries, cafes, restaurants, generally there’s just more going on.
The benefits of being in a rural area are peace and quiet, beautiful surroundings (although cities are beautiful, too), a lower cost of living and, with modern technology, we really don’t feel as isolated as we used to!
Do you have any suggestions as to how rural and rurban communities can support a thriving local arts & cultural scene?
I think it’s important for local businesses to help organize or sponsor arts events, and I’ve noticed that in Suffolk many cafes and restaurants are keen to help promote local artists by displaying their work, which is a wonderful idea.
I also think it’s important for local councils to offer a range of art classes or groups where people can meet on a regular basis. Other than that, just supporting local arts events by making the effort to attend or buying/commissioning work from local artists is great!
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To find out more about Natasha and view samples of her work, visit her website www.natasha-newton.co.uk and follow the links to her other sites.
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Tags: artist > arts and culture > England > illustration > Natasha Newton > painting > rural > rurban > Suffolk
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Community development, growth and communication in the rural-urban fringe landscape.
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