A chat with Maureen Nathan

Maureen Nathan is joining the Lots Road Group for its next exhibition – Connected – which will go on show later this year.  Watch this space for details.

We catch up with Maureen, who studied portraiture at The Heatherley School of Fine Art, to find out about her art.

How did you become a painter? 

I have drawn and made artworks all my life.  Painting became a natural progression of that creative urge.

What drew you to portraiture in particular?  

I love people. There is an exchange of energy when painting a portrait between the painter and the sitter which I find very exciting. Attempting to convey something of the subject’s character invariably leads on to discovering more about them and about oneself. We are always in our paintings and portraiture is no different.

Which other artists or painters do you look to for inspiration and why?

That’s a big question and there are so many! If I had to pick from the past they are  Piero della Francesca, Brueghel and Vuillard. I’m smiling because now that I’ve started thinking about it that’s just the tip of the iceberg but  looking at their paintings often answers my questions about colour, composition and character. Modern painters that I admire include Celia Paul, Jennifer Pochinski, Chantal Joffe, Catherine Kehoe and on and on because there is so much good painting out there right now.

 

What, to you, constitutes a good portrait?

A good portrait has to be a good painting as well.   Likeness, of course, but also something indefinable  that makes me want to know more about the sitter/s and to see more by the painter who painted them.

 

Do you have any current projects that you’d like to tell us about?

I have recently been awarded a fully funded two week artist residency in Ireland at the Cill Rialaig Foundation. A marvellous opportunity of time, peace and space to explore and develop work outside of my usual studio practice, which I look forward to in November.   A recent painting is on show in Bristol in the Royal West of England Academy annual open exhibition 7th October until 25th November and I will be participating in Park Studios Open weekend in May 2019.

Remembered: time in the studio with journalist pioneer Katharine Whitehorn, diagnosed with advanced Alzheimers

It is with great sadness that we read in this week’s Observer that the remarkable Katharine Whitehorn has been diagnosed with advanced Alzheimers Disease.

Lots Road Group member Sarah Richardson writes:

“This is particularly sad for me as I had the great privilege of being able to paint Katharine’s portrait three years ago for the Lots Road Group’s exhibition ‘Portrayed’. Our time together in the studio will be with me always for it was an extraordinary opportunity to share the company of this brilliant, witty and beautiful woman who broke journalistic barriers for the way women were perceived in all walks of life. ”

Katharine Whitehorn’s portrait is now in the private collection of Newnham Cambridge, her old college.

 

Sarah Richardson and Katharine Whitehorn