One Loopy Knitter: What Inspires You: An Interview With The Blackbird Sings.

Keeping The Home Fires Burning 3

1. Please tell us a little bit about what you do.

"I'm a full-time artist dividing my time between the beautiful county of Suffolk in the UK and Paris, France, which is where my boyfriend lives. I also spend a fair amount of time in London. I love the fresh air, nature, and open space of Suffolk, but also enjoy the contrast of being in the city as well. Each seems to feed a different side of my creativity. I'm a painter and I exhibit my work in galleries as well as selling online and accepting private commissions. I also take on occasional illustration work. My work tends to focus on my love of nature: in particular birds, trees, and my 'trademark' winter landscapes. My interest in astronomy is also making an appearance in my work recently, with the 'Imaginary Star Chart' paintings on paper and the new painting 'Looking at the Constellations' (currently available in my Etsy shop). I enjoy the challenge of working on different surfaces, so alongside canvas, paper and woodblocks, I have started to paint on 'objects' such as wooden boxes, sycamore plates and smooth pebbles. I absolutely love what I do and to be able to do it every day is a dream come true. Every day feels like an adventure."

The Pattern of the Earth 3

2. A lot of your imagery reads to me as haunted and a bit dark- along the lines of folk and fairy tales.

Would you please expand on this?

"A lot of people say this about my work and I agree to a certain extent. I think that somehow I was influenced by the books I read as a child - I was the type of girl who always had her head in a book, and I'd read certain books over and over, almost obsessively. I'm also very inspired by the stark winter landscape with bare trees and muted colours, and I love forests. You will also see the night sky and full moon in many of my paintings, which adds to the slightly haunted feeling in some of them. I'm interested in telling a story with my images, and I hope they will sometimes bring back long-forgotten memories for people. My collectors have often said to me that certain paintings remind them of a feeling or perhaps a place from their past, and I love that. I'm also interested in the ethereal and ephemeral, and things that happen 'under the surface' - I like my work to have many layers."

Constellation Bird 1

3. I saw in your bio that you are in the process of illustrating a children's book- congrats! This makes me curious as to the theme... If you don't want to give away any info, no worries.

"The idea of writing and illustrating a children's book is something I've wanted to do for years - I just didn't know what I wanted it to be about! Then suddenly, a few weeks ago, it came to me. In the space of 15 minutes I had my main character, a rough idea of the storyline from beginning to end, and an idea of how I wanted to illustrate it. It's going to take me a while as I have to fit it in around my other work, but I'm very excited about it. I don't want to give away any details just at the moment - I'm keeping it under my hat!"

Tree With Roots 3

4. Keeping our work fresh means constantly seeking new sources of inspiration. Where do you look to find it and/ or what kinds of sources most inspire you?

"Anywhere and everywhere! Suffolk (where I live most of the time) inspires me with its beauty and nature, Paris and London inspire me because I can surround myself with art and culture. I am a huge book collector, so I often look through my books on art, design and photography to get ideas or to just generally feel inspired. I have no desire to copy other artists' work, but I may see a subject or motif in their work, and if I'm inspired by it, it will plant a little seed in my brain and I'll start to think of ways I could perhaps use the subject in my own work and in my own way. The internet is a brilliant source of inspiration, and I spend hours each week reading artists' blogs or just doing research. It's a wonderful tool for an artist in so many ways. One of my favourite sites is twitter (you can find me at @NatashaNewton). I use it daily, and now have a huge circle of friends and followers including other artists/designers who continually post interesting and inspiring links. I find out about so many new artists, opportunities, and shows through twitter!"