Nathalie Jaguin

An accomplished painter and pastellist, Nathalie Jaguin has been working as a full-time professional artist since 2003.
For a decade and a half, she specialized in portraiture with a view to faithfully depicting the sitter : an exacting technique which she perfectly mastered. She undertook 6000 figure portait commissions in the course of those 15 years. A very strict discipline, portrait-painting mainly implies the accurate reproduction of the sitter’s features. The technical rigors and precision required to render a realistic image, demand an absolute command of the art of drawing, leaving very little room for the artist’s fantasy. This was what she missed most. While still applying her skills to portrait painting, Nathalie therefore decided to explore other avenues, consequently offering an exciting new leeway to her bubbling imagination. In the « Experimental Portraits » series, she deliberately adopted a different approach, handling her pastel in an alternative fashion by using it lengthwise. This technique gives a satisfying « carved-from-the-block » feel to the painting, in which texture becomes foremost. The subject appears to be chiseled out of the matter itself, a bit similar to modelling clay. Additionally Nathalie vent...