STUDIO JOURNAL

Find Your Painting

Sometimes we are drawn to a painting before we know why. Choose the answer that feels most like you. Write down A, B, C, D for each of the five questions Do not overthink it. Question 1 Where would you rather be right now? A A quiet room with the windows open B A table in the sunshine C By the sea D Somewhere in the Tuscan hills Question 2 Which light are you drawn to? A. Soft morning light B. Strong Mediterranean sunshine C. Golden evening light D. Moody light before a storm

Aug 102 min read

A Little Birthday Gift From Me to You

It’s my birthday.. and I wanted to give you a little something from me. I’ve made one of my paintings into a free A4 print for you to download ..a little piece of summer for your home. Thank you for being here, looking at my paintings and following along. Natalie x This free print download has now ended

Aug 61 min read

Where I Left My Thoughts

What I Thought I Was Painting When I arrived in Chianni, I thought I was going to paint olive trees. I imagined myself chasing the view, trying to capture the Tuscan landscape before the light changed. Instead, something unexpected happened. The paintings gradually became less about the landscape and more about being there. A paint box left open in the grass. Lunch beneath the trees. An empty chair in the shade. Small moments that would have seemed unimportant if I hadn’t sto

Jun 121 min read

An Afternoon in the olive grove

This afternoon I packed a new pochade box, a handful of oil paints and wandered into the olive grove. The grove, in Chianni, Tuscany, was quiet. Beyond the olive trees, the countryside stretched away in layers of ochre fields, distant hills and soft blue skies. Painting outdoors has a way of making you look differently. The light shifts constantly, colours change and there is always far more to paint than can ever fit onto a small panel. What interested me wasn’t every tree o

Jun 81 min read

A Lifetime Returned

A Lifetime Returned This morning I sat outside Bar Centrale with a coffee, watching the village wake up around me. As always, people drifted in and out. Friends stopping to chat. Families meeting. The familiar rhythm of a small Italian town carrying on as it always has. But this morning I found myself watching a father and son. The father must be in his nineties now. Over the three years I’ve been coming to Chianni, I’ve watched him become a little frailer with each passing s

May 302 min read

The Afternoon Room

Some paintings arrive slowly, through layers of observations and uncertainty, and others seem to gather themselves almost quietly over time. The Afternoon Room felt somewhere in between. This new 100x100cm oil painting became less about describing a particular place and more about trying to capture atmosphere...the feeling of being inside a room while the landscape beyond the window continues to shift with light, reflection and movement. I wanted the figure to remain soft and

May 171 min read

Where The Path Begins.

I have recently finished a new large landscape painting titled Where The Path Begins. The painting was inspired by a view only a few minutes walk from my home on the Ashdown Forest in Sussex, a place I walk through often and know well. The path winds gently across the hillside in an ancient woodland, towards a distant windmill while sheep graze quietly in the foreground. Beyond that, the land opens out across the valley under a wide sky. It is one of those views that feels bo

Mar 162 min read

The Knitting Lady-A New Direction In My Painting Inspired By Chianni

Recently I finished a small oil painting called The Knitting Lady-Chianni, inspired by a simple everyday moment in my Tuscan village. It may look like a quiet scene, but for me it represents something bigger... a shift towards painting real life, human connection and those fleeting moments that often stay with us longest. The Moment that inspired the painting While spending time in Chianni, a small hilltop village in Tuscany that has become incredibly important to me, I notic

Feb 92 min read

A pre-Christmas note from my Studio

A pre-Christmas note from my Studio With Christmas getting closer, my studio has shifted into a different rhythm with the shorter days, softer light, and longer evenings spent painting. This time of the year always changes how I work and the paintings themselves. I find my paintings become more reflective, more about atmosphere and emotion which is apparent in the paintings I create. It is when I am most aware that original art isn't just a decoration, it holds moments, fee

Dec 11, 20251 min read

‘Where Time Stood Still’

"We all have places that hold pieces of our story …places where time felt slower, softer, or more alive." Here Is The Story Behind the Painting Some paintings hold more than colour and shape, they hold time. “Where Time Stood Still” began, as many of my commissions do, with a message from a returning client. Someone whose stories I’ve quietly painted over the years. Each time, she has asked me to capture a moment, a memory, a feeling usually woven around a much-loved pl

Oct 25, 20253 min read

Wondering What Natalie Rymer’s Art Is All About?

What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever used as a paintbrush? A stick if that counts! Not exactly weird, but it did the job. It can be a good exercise practising using different items like this to create different lines and textures. Sometimes the most unassuming things turn out to be quite handy once there is paint involved. If your art had a soundtrack, what would it sound like? It would be something like Arvo Pärt’s ‘Spiegel im Spiegel’ one of my absolute favourite pieces

Oct 19, 20254 min read