An Interview With Nathalie Vogel
Nathalie Vogel is an artist who is interested in the selection process, what she intuitively chooses to paint when she looks at something and how it happens. In her older work, Nathalie had a goal in mind, and then the idea of a goal became more distant. Vogel picks out small parts of everything she looks at and aims to prioritize using her intuition in order to create.
Can you tell us a little bit about you?
I live in Brooklyn where I work as a decorative artist and paint when life allows. I come from a family of artists and after classical training in Paris, I came to the US where I was a photorealist artist and now moving away from figuration, although not completely, looking for that line that demarcates figuration from abstraction, which I understood is a personal intuitive intimate limit.
What is your artistic process and how has it evolved since you began painting?
Right now, I like to sketch something I see then go home and do a small (about 2 inches square) color sketch from memory, then I go away from it and play. I'll then maybe try a bigger version, and sometimes play with that and do another version, bigger or not, and may refer to the quick photo I took for details. I also have a huge selection of images that resonate with me that I print. I like to spread them on the floor to pick one and see what it generates. I used to pay attention to how the elements in an image work and I look at what in the image is trying to fight for the centre, I was interested in how to render that, kind of like what happens in a cubist painting with the elements overlapping. In any case, in the last few years it has been about letting an image move on its own while looking at it for a bit. Before that, with the nudes, it was about painting the three dimensionality through layering. I'd set up a context with a model, take photos and work with that to learn oil painting in layers, the body in particular, and enjoyed giving volume with a very limited palette.
Have you recently been exploring any new themes within your work?
I am not so much working with a theme or subject, but rather have been looking for a process that generates a lot of images.
You mention working less and less with an end goal in mind. How has this change positively affected your work?
It has become more intuitive, I look for mental exercises that generate images, and experimenting right now with painting from memory. So I am making images with what I pick out from looking at a photo or painting from memory after looking at a landscape. These are both exercises I am interested in.
What role does light and form play in your art?
The shapes they create are movable I feel, so you can play with it. The light that hits an object is not necessarily in the same world and does not need to be treated in the same way.
Your earliest memory of art?
I was 14, our Spanish teacher took us to see a painting of Tapies. I didn't understand it but it always stayed with me, the textures and abstract context. I also used to copy Leonardo Da Vinci in high school, I loved the clean lines, like Alex Katz whose clarity I always felt joy with.
Who or what is your biggest artistic inspiration?
Being able to make paintings that oscillate, between the familiar and non familiar for example, or between different greys.
Are there any particular artists that you are currently enjoying?
Oh yes! I discovered recently the work of Veerle Beckers, totally love it. There are many belgian painters, like Roger Raveel, I am enjoying, from the sixties to today. I also love Milton Avery, Brenda Goodman, Susan Rothenberg, Lee Lozano, Ken Kiff, Ellen Siebers, Lupertz, Lois Dodd and many others. Painting is very alive right now and doing really well, there are so many interesting artists.
What is your favourite book or film and why?
I enjoy experimental work, like the seven wonders, or the films of Maya Deren. The books of Karl Ove Knausgaard or Kew Gardens by Virginia Woolf, a writing that jumps from one world to another seemlessly. I love how Karl goes from the immediate mondane to a very far abstract concept in the same sentence
Are you working on any new projects you are particularly excited about?
Haha yes, the painting from memory. (images shared above)