Amber Nuttall is a talented emerging painter whose work we can’t get enough of.
The Melbourne artist says she’s been a ‘maker’ ever since she was a kid, trying any and every creative outlet she could.
‘I moved to Melbourne from Ballarat and went into studying textile design at RMIT, which merged my interests of art, illustration, and design,’ Amber says. For the past five years, she’s been working in textile design and product development, creating prints with hand-painted elements and homewares, like tableware, rugs, and furniture.
But she only really started oil painting three or four years ago, after approaching her ‘Nana’ for some guidance. ‘She is a realistic painter of the Australian bush, rainforests, florals, and the ocean’ Amber explains.’ When I was younger, we’d paint with watercolour, picking flowers and plants from her garden to study.’
It didn’t take Amber long to cultivate a style of her own, and in lockdown she was drawn to practicing still life paintings of flowers, foliage, and food. Her vignettes hide textural and detailed brushstrokes, and her warm, muted colours draw you into the scenes on the canvas. She has a knack for capturing quiet moments in her everyday life, from delicious meals shared with friends or a haul of fresh produce bought back from the markets.
Other paintings evolve from memories immortalised in a sketch while on holiday, like a dreamy view of or a peek inside the window of a florist’s workshop.
‘A great thing about still life is being able to create a narrative in the painting, triggering memories of meals shared, places or with everyday objects,’ Amber explains.
‘All my work starts out as drawings in a book, with rather illegible notes and rough studies of things and places. Sometimes there’s sketches of painting compositions or just items on their own, in between ideas for sculptural work, lamps, furniture or vessels.’
Hot off the heels of her first ever sold-out, solo show at Brunswick Street Gallery, Amber says she’s also been looking at garden scenes, buildings and landscapes, in addition to exploring ceramics — something she says her parents were into when she was a kid. It’s all a part of her ongoing creative practice, which she says ‘continues to be an exploration’!
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