NATALIE ARNOLDI
Natalie Arnoldi grew up in Malibu, CA, where she developed a passion for the ocean, which became the inspiration for both her scientific and artistic pursuits. While conducting a full-time career as an artist, Arnoldi is simultaneously engaged in the doctoral program in Marine Ecology at Stanford University, where she also received bachelor's and master's degrees in marine biology.
As a painter, Arnoldi works prolifically, when not engaged in research at the edges of the ocean in places like Palau. Her compositions are ambitious, often quite large in scale. The paintings evoke the vastness, power and mystery of the ocean, while driven by overarching environmental narratives and concerns. This duality of science and art was well represented, and received, in her two recent solo museum exhibitions, at the Bakersfield Museum and the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History, in Bakersfield and Pacific Grove, CA.
While Arnoldi’s subjects aren’t limited solely to the sea, they all bear the mark a highly developed aesthetic style - one that is defined by a unified color palette of mostly blues and grays. Forms loom in murky half-lights, hanging on the edges of perception, where ambiguity becomes an open invitation to get involved. Whether a shark suspended in ocean depths, jellyfish caught in ethereal light, a fog covered cityscape, an abandoned gas station, or the hint of airplane lights in the depth of a night sky-all are painted with just enough information to ignite the imagination.
Ultimately, Arnoldi intends for the work to educate, create a sense of awe, and shift our relationship with nature and the unknown.
“I have always been fascinated by imagery which appears ambiguous or aesthetically abstract but represents real objects. The resulting image forces the viewer to actively participate in giving the painting context and narrative.”
“The ocean has always been the focal point of both my artistic and scientific pursuits. Few images are as evocative and inspire such a broad spectrum of emotions than standing at the shore and looking out to sea. This vantage also represents the quintessential challenge to marine conservation; it is nearly impossible to diagnose the health of the ocean just by standing at the shore, and it is this inaccessibility which makes it so difficult to study and inspire people to connect with the ocean.
These paintings present a literal and figurative interface between air and water, humans and ocean, viewer and painting.”
- Natalie Arnoldi
EXHIBITIONS
AllTogetherNow
DEEP WATER
MEDIA
INCONVERSATION: Natalie Arnoldi
