Natalie Bessell

Natalie Bessell (b. 1992) grew up in San Diego, USA and has lived in Melbourne, Australia since 2021. She is a multidisciplinary artist with a focus on painting and wall sculptures. Her artistic practice primarily involves oil pastels on wood and painted glaze on ceramics. Using figurative and abstract elements, Bessell creates scenes of people and plants in soft colours and shapes.   

She draws inspiration from her life as a new mother in a semi-rural beach town on the Mornington Peninsula, outside of Melbourne. Themes of fertility, motherhood, femininity, and nature have pervaded her work before and after becoming a mother. This reflects her more general fascination with the intersection of that which is ordinary and that which is magnificent. 

Bessell's work has been featured in galleries worldwide and can be found in collections such as the Adina Hotel Pentridge in Melbourne, Australia and the Pearl Hotel in San Diego, USA as well as various private collections both nationally and internationally. Additionally, Bessell was selected for The Athenaeum’s 23rd and 32nd Juried Exhibitions in San Diego, USA and Fenton and Fenton’s Rising Artist Exhibition in Melbourne, Australia.