MURALS & PORTRAITS

Nathalie Beauvillain Scott was born in Fontainebleau, a little town near Paris. As a child she always had an interest in drawing and at Secondary school she specialised in Art and History of Art. 

In 1989 she became involved with a group of artists based in Weybridge. She was then creating deltaic paintings on a huge scale based on the shape of the delta. She then went back to Paris to study art for a few years.

In 1993 she returned to the UK where she met Tony Scott, founder of Guilfest. While bringing up their 3 children, Nathalie worked as a mural artist getting commissions all around Surrey in schools, private houses, bars and hospitals.

Her interest in portraiture started in 2003 and she has been getting many portrait commissions ever since.  She specialises in highly detailed portrait paintings of everyday life. Her portraits of everyone from children to celebrities and royals are recognised for their incredible likeness.

 

Nathalie paints almost exclusively in oil on canvas. Her process is very time consuming. She begins with a detailed drawing and will then apply a succession of thin layers of oil. Some of her portraits will have a narrative content telling a story when others will be more about capturing the personalities of her sitters at a specific time in their lives. She recently started to draw portrait in pencil on paper.

Her meticulous approach to portraiture resulted in her work being displayed in the National Portrait Gallery in 2004, 2010, 2012 and 2015 as part of the BP Portrait Award.  The BP Portrait Award, now know as the Herbert Smith Freehills Portrait Award is the most prestigious portrait competition in the world. For over 30 years the exhibition has presented outstanding and innovative new work.

For the last few years, along with 6 other local artists, Nathalie has been running an artist-run exhibition space, GU ART currently in the White Lion Walk Guildford.  She has recently enjoyed passing her expertise to a younger generation through workshops and private tuition as she believes it is important to participate in the life of the schools and keep up contact with like-minded painters as well as running adult workshops.

Nathalie started the project Faces of Guildford 5 years ago and it is now coming to an end with an exhibition starting on the 23rd of November through to January in the the town centre. It will include 16 oil portrait paintings and 14 pencil drawings of Guildfordians who have had an impact on the community in the past and the present. Nathalie has had a close relationship at some point with most of the people included in her exhibition. 

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