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‘Study of Queen Anne’ 2019

Gouache

For this portrait, I experimented with how to represent light hitting different points of the face with layers of paint.

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‘A girl by the sea’ 2020

Gouache, oil pastel, pencil

For this work in progress, I wanted to explore creating an evocative atmosphere through the use of colour and composition.

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‘Stedelijk’ 2019

Coloured pencil

Observations of contemporary Japanese art from my visit to the Colourful Japan exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum.

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‘Camille’ 2019

Coloured pencil

Observational drawing of Van Gogh's Portrait of Camille Roulin that I did when I visited the Van Gogh Museum.

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‘Untitled’ 2020

Ink

Composition study of a seascape work in progress. I'm trying to capture motion of the tide using gestural mark making.

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‘Man on the plane home’ 2019

pencil

An observational sketch of a dozing man adjacent to me on the plane home from Amsterdam.

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 ‘Lady waiting at the traffic lights’ 2016

Coloured pencil

I love caricature and when I saw this lady across the road from me, I couldn't resist exaggerating her features.

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‘In the café’ 2019

Oil pastel

With these pieces, I wanted to explore a new medium and the textures oil pastels create have always interested me.

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‘Divided’ 2019

Posca marker pen, acrylic

 I entered this piece into a competition, using my own experience of isolation and detachment from differing communities as inspiration.

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‘Solidarity’

gouache, acrylic, ink

A collage of photographs that I took at protest marches I've participated in over the last three years.

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‘St Mary’s Square’ 2017

Ink

Here, I've used different line variation and automatic drawing to sketch a row of cottages near my home.

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 ‘Home town’ 2017

Ink

This piece's dense composition was inspired by how buildings in my home town appear piled on top of each other.

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‘Life drawing’ 2020

Ink, coloured pencil 

This is from a life drawing class I attended. I wanted to experiment with line and form with regards to anatomy.

[nataliaaaking]

Societal labelling has the capacity to be at once both liberating and limiting depending on the context in which it’s used. Social labels represent a way of differentiating and defining a person or group of people’s identity. This way of categorising is prominent in identity politics. A good example of this is found in the use of the initialism LGBTQ+. Labelling yourself under the LGBTQ+ umbrella can give recognition for existing and liberation of sexuality and gender from the heteronormative binary. But positive labels that we willingly give ourselves are drastically different to restrictive social labelling that is imposed upon you. 

There is an inherent black and whiteness in social labelling but human identity is not homogeneous. Categorising and putting people into often limiting and constrictive boxes can shape negative perceptions not only of others but of oneself. The consequences and effects of restrictive social labelling are widely documented by historians, social theorists and medical specialists as deeply insidious and profoundly harmful. I’m drawn to the figurative and social definition of labelling more so than the literal because social labelling is fundamentally connected to identity politics, which is a subject I’m very interested in. I have experienced a systematically harmful attitude towards women since childhood so I understand harmful social labelling in a broad historical context as well as a personal one and I think I will be able to draw inspiration from both of these informed perspectives.

These are extracts of sketchbook layouts and research spanning the last three years of my time studying art and design at college.

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‘Classmates’ 2020

Pencil

Patient friends at college let me draw them whilst they worked. I love trying to capture a person’s likeness.

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‘Somewhere in Italy’ 2017

Seriagraphy, coloured pencil

I strived to express ineffable feelings of nostalgia in this screenprint, the hazy ink background is intended to evoke recollection.