Awareness Post - Natasha Junmanee

Glorious Mandarin

Oil on Canvas

This piece is by Natasha Junmanee who is an Australian oil painter who focuses on photorealism and still lives. She got her bachelors degree of Visual arts in 2019 from the Federation University in Australia. During this period she also did a still life painting workshop with James Tucker at Julian Aston Art School. From 2019-2022 she worked at Louis Vuitton as an in-house artisan and painter.

Within her work she explores the "beauty of still life from objects and things around my life" as she described. She is inspired by Dutch and Flemish paintings of classical still lives. Her work includes many symbolic objects to express her meaning and to depict the beauty of stillness. She uses her color choices and composition to provoke thoughts about culture and philosophies. A lot of her work features nature, and natural elements such as fruits and flowers. She explains that these are some of her favorite subjects to paint and as she is inspired by the tranquil beauty of nature. She is a very successful artist and has been a finalist in many contests such as Ravenswood Art Prize, Hunters Hill Art Exhibition, Blacktown City Art Prize, Hunters Hill Art Exhibition, The Fisher’s Ghost Art Award, City of Ryde Woman Art Prize, and more. Her latest exhibition was titled "Exuberance" and features still lives with common objects like china, flowers, and fruits. In this exhibition she "sought to capture the joy and playfulness that can be found in various objects." She wanted to show the lavishness that is inherant in all objects through the exploration of light and color.

I really like her work as I am painting a still life currently. I enjoy the bright colors she uses, and in many cases her color palette is complementary. I find her craft to be extrodinary and her use of value to be very effective. I find her still lives to be better and more interesting than her paintings of figures and landscapes. One of my favorite pieces is the one above as the color scheme adds to the painting and the composition makes the piece interesting. The way the oranges are pisitioned around the china elevates the still life. I want to take her use of color and how effective her values are and implement that into my work. I also want to play with flowers and the use of natural elements in my work.

Website https://njfineart.com/about

Solo exhibition

2024 EXUBERANCE, Franceskeevil at Studio W, Woolloomooloo

2023 BIRDSONG, Franceskeevil at Studio W, Woolloomooloo

2020 Simply Beautiful, M2 Gallery, Surry Hills, Sydney

2018 GLIMPSES, Art Space on The Concourse, Chatswood