NATALIE THOMPSON

FROM THE INSIDE

Acrylic on wood

420x594mm

This is part 1 of my two-part series fear. Through creating this piece I wanted to inflict a sense of fear and discomfort through the use of the contrast between the red and black colours used, the demonic eyes and how the layering of the background allows the face to come through as if it is hiding behind something. I chose to have the face emerge from the red and black surrounding as I wanted the audience to gain a sense of discomfort through having to look closer into the piece.

ON THE OUTSIDE

Acrylic on wood

500x500mm

This is part 2 of my two-part series fear. I created this piece with the same reference photo as the previous photo with a few changes. I pushed the contrast and made the photo black and white to make the face stand out and detach from the subjects body and their surroundings. I chose to add additional drips from the eyes to create more of a deathly atmosphere. I chose the black background as I want the audience to feel a sense of isolation with this piece when they approached it in the dark.

Morning Trippin’

Acrylic on canvas with image transfer

910x610mm

In order to create this piece, I used a photo reference of a digital art piece that I made with photos I had taken. I wanted to keep the piece as personal as possible, allowing the audience to perceive the art through my personal perspectives as to how I would imagine a psychedelic experience would look like. Through the painting process of this piece, I found that the image I had created digitally worked better as a photo and the painting needed to have an extra sense of mystery. That is when I decided to add the cave in the tunnel, to help guide the audience through the experience I wanted to create, leading them onto the second piece in this series.

Afternoon in the Tunnel

Tunnel vision is the second painting to the 3 part series ‘PNG’. I decided that this series would be of the stages of a psychedelic experience with this piece being the most intense part of the experience. I link the idea of the cave from DayTrippin’ to this piece as a continuation to allow the series to become more of a story rather than three separate paintings within a closer theme.

Through the other side

From what I’ve read and learnt about psychedelic experiences through the blogs I’ve read and videos I’ve watched, these experiences tend to be intense at first and ease out a few hours in where the user becomes connected to the earth and everything around them becomes more beautiful the more they look around themselves. Ocean Soul shows the mind and body connection to nature that the figure in the centre of this piece begins to feel through this experience. The colours used in comparison to the other pieces are more bright and colourful in a less harsh way, the pinks and yellows and greens accentuate the beauty of nature and the figure’s posture gives off a sense of freedom.

THROUGH MY EYES

The inspiration for this piece came from the music video for ‘Yamborghini High’ by A$AP Mob uploaded to youtube on May 12th, 2016 which included a series of datamoshing effects. This video is based on an LSD trip. I filmed friends on everyday ventures, and edited them together using some stylistic qualities of the music video. The colours and patterns included are directly from my own art pieces moshed together as an amalgamation of my artwork. There is a soundtrack, that creates an uncomfortable feeling in the beginning, changing to ease the mood.

City Lights

This piece shows an altered reality in an urban setting, in contrast to the nature in other pieces. layers of digitally manipulated images on acetate, create tubes that present a confused ambiguous scene. The photos used present the entrance of a restaurant and two friends. . The wanted tubes are lit from within highlighting parts of the layers emphasising a confused reality.

Sensation (series) TOUCH

A 3 piece series with exaggerated use of line. The lines are an explicit connection to brainwaves, and their connection to the heightened senses with reference to altered brain waves as a response to taking narcotics. In this piece, there is a man lying on these brain waves holding his head in a similar position to the boy in ‘Thought’. Two separate sets of hands, one grabbing for help and the other grabbing an uncomfortable person in the centre.

Sensation (series) ‘Sight’

Eyes are a common motif in my exhibition and I wanted to capture the sense of sight through this piece. The bright colours behind the eyes represent chaotic thoughts and erratic brain waves, distorting perceived reality, heightened by the use of line. The sad, droopy eyes portray the mental exhaustion and damage of the aftermath of narcotics.

Sensation (series) ‘Thought’

The ‘Sensation’ series reflects the effect of chemicals on the brain, and heightened senses of a boy holding his head in as if in pain, or, as if deep in thought. I wanted this piece to portray both pain and peace, allowing the audience’s to perceive either a negative