Natasha Hills Art & Design

I was born in 1963 and lived beside the bright seascape of the Blackwater Estuary on Mersea Island until I was 21. Perhaps that's why my favourite landscapes are flatland marshes with glistening creeks and crinkled mud. My family loved sailing, entrepreneurship, Advaita philosophy, meditation and art. Being drawn to pattern, colour, fabric and stitch, I began formal artistic training with a Foundation in Art & Design in central London in 1988 where I studied print making, drawing, contemporary embroidery and pattern cutting. I married a sailor in 1991, moved to Devon, had two children and studied 20th C Art & Culture, Education, Neuro-Psychology & Psychoanalysis and then Analytical Philosophy over fifteen years with the Open University. Luckily, for an artist, I've been financially independent for most of my adult life and in 2011 I took a ten year turn as a family director of the business we share. I've had articles published on textile design in craft journals, taught 20thC art history for the University of the Third Age, and colour and design theory in my studio. I sell work from time to time online, through local galleries, private exhibitions and studio visits. I'm particularly interested in art historical philosophies of form in art and design. I've developed a way of creating pattern by visually mapping some of the philosophies I've discovered. Following Wolfflin's Principles of Art History, I'm in the process of extending his ideas with contemporary art historical analyses and attempting to write a book on Principles of Art & Design.

Qualifications
BA Hons - 20th C Art History & Psychology
Adv Dip Ed - Childhood Development
M.A Cultural & Media Studies
MSc Psychology
P.G Cert Humanities - Analytic Philosophy

Education

1987 - Life Drawing: Chelsea College of Arts, London

1987 - Dressmaking: Kensington College, London

1988 - Art Foundation: Printing, Drawing, Fashion Design, Contemporary Embroidery (with Julia Caprara): City Literary Institute, Covent Garden, London

1989 - Fine Art: York Arts College

1989 - City & Guilds Embroidery: Easingwold, Yorkshire

1992 - Drawing: (with Laurie Rudling), Mansion, Totnes, Devon

1993 - Embroidery: (with Constance Howard), Dartington Hall, Devon

1994 - Textiles Diploma: Open College of the Arts, Plymouth

1997 - 2001 - Painting: (with Jean Alice Coombe), Foxhole, Dartington

2002 - Advanced Diploma Child Development, Open University (with IIona Roth)

2004 - Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Open University (with Charles Harrison, Paul Wood & Briony Fer)

2005 - Certificate in Counselling, Heartwood, Dartington

2006 - Existential Counselling Diploma, New School, London

2006 - Post Graduate Certificate, Social Sciences, Open University

2008 - Master of Science, Psychology, Open University

2009 - CPD Karuna Institute: Mindfulness & Psychodynamics

2009 - CPD Iron Mill Institute Exeter: Transactional Analysis

2009 - Master of Arts, Culture & Media Studies (Distinction) Open University (with Stuart Hall, Gillian Rose & Doreen Massey)

2010 - Textiles, Silk Screen Printing, Plymouth College of Art & Design

2011 - 2020 Family Director, Hold Investment Company, Colchester, Essex

Exhibitions

1989 - Contemporary Textiles Group Exhibition, Covent Garden, London

1996 - Needle & Thread: High St, Totnes, Devon

1997 - Knitting & Stitching Show: Alexander Palace, London

1998 - Harrogate Trade Fair

1999 - Foxhole Painters: Birdwood HSE, Totnes

2002 - Nine Days of Art: Harbertonford, Devon

2004 - Harbour Hse, Kingsbridge, Devon

2003 - Art in the Stables: Haswell, Devon

2009 - Open Studios: Harbertonford Art Studio

2011 - Open Studios: Harbertonford Art Studio

2015 - SHAF: Coombe Park, Ashprington, Devon

2018 - Bowie Gallery: Totnes, Devon

2019 - Mersea Island: Museum

2021 - Open Studio: Mersea Island

2023 - Totnes & Dartington Open Studios