An Interview With Nerina Lascelles

Artist, Nerina Lascelles in her Panton Hill studio.

Masterful Brands Agency is delighted to share an interview with Melbourne Artist Nerina Lascelles. Discover why Nerina creates and the advice she would give to any emerging female artist (it’s a goodie!). Thank you, Nerina, for your generosity of spirit in this interview and for creating light-filled moments in our lives using your art!

Why do you create?

In my early years, it became evident that while some individuals are naturally drawn to performance, music or writing, my mode of artistic expression was visual art. I have always felt as though drawing and painting are my voice or my form of communication, and studying the role of art in history seemed to confirm a lifelong calling to use this ’voice’ to inspire and to uplift the viewer. I also have a long-held ideal that the paintings I create are not for myself but more gifts for humanity. Even after all these years, I have never kept any of the paintings I've completed.

For me, the aim of creating art is to offer a window through which individuals have an opportunity to experience a deeper connection with themselves, each other and the planet, as well as the spiritual realm beyond physical form. While the paintings I create are objects that have arisen from the invisible, it is my deepest desire that these paintings offer the viewer a doorway to their own invisible realm within.

Who are you?

According to my parents I have been drawing and painting since the day I was able to hold a crayon. I was told that I had the ‘gift’ that was passed on from my father's father, who was also an artist.  As a child I would often draw all day, dreaming of becoming an artist. In early primary school, when asked to dress up as - ‘What do you want to be when you grow up’ (day), I proudly adorned myself in an art smock and beret, holding some brushes and a wooden palette that belonged to my Poppa.

Ever since I was young, I’ve held an interest in the spiritual life of humanity rather than the mundane world of things.  As a child I would often contemplate the idea of existence, the source of all life and of imagined worlds beyond ours. I was fascinated with philosophy, wisdom and spiritual traditions across the globe and blessed to have a mother who studied yoga, meditation, spirituality, and healing practises and would regularly lead us through guided meditations as children.

It’s fascinating how one’s dreams and values are so clear at such a young age and perhaps unusual that I have always known that to create art was my life's primary vocation.

Thankfully my parents supported my desire to study art, and after completing an art focussed V.C.E year at R.M.I.T., I went on to complete both a B.A. and Grad. Diploma in Visual Arts at Ballarat University.

An important drive in my early work (post art school) was the study of a number of global cultures of the earth that may offer us in the West a glimpse of a different and perhaps more honourable and balanced way of being.  I spent much of my 20's and 30's travelling to and studying the arts, culture and spiritual traditions of several countries including Africa, South America, Indonesia, India, Nepal, Tibet and, more recently, Japan.  Upon returning to Australia after each journey, I sought to translate both my research and my inspiration through my paintings.

Upon leaving art school I made a pact to self to have at least one exhibition every year, and due to having a baby as well as ‘Covid lockdowns’, there's only been a couple of years that I haven't been able to uphold this commitment.

I've now been painting for over 30 years, exhibiting both locally and internationally, with my paintings forming part of collections in several countries across the globe.

The other calling I've held since I was young has been to help others, and with the intention to combine my two big callings, ‘art’ and ‘healing’ I enrolled in my first Art Therapy course around 30 years ago.

Now, having spent over 25 years practising as an Art Therapist, I have sat with over 20,000 individuals, encouraging them to make meaning of their life experiences through the medium of visual art. My artistic and Art Therapy practise complement each other perfectly.

Song of Creation, Mixed Media on Canvas, 122cm x 152cm

If you could give an emerging woman artist one piece of advice, what would it be?

"Get out of your own way."

This probably sounds a little odd initially but what I have noticed is that we as artists, tend to bring so much 'extra baggage' to the studio.  Due to a barrage of self-sabotaging thoughts, we often feel so much resistance before having even made our first brush stroke. Whether they be comparisons, expectations, self-criticism, or we're trying desperately to control every step of the process, we suffocate the natural creative flow.  While it's normal for most of society to experience these thoughts to varying degrees, my advice would be to create a ritual/process that enables us to leave all fear, judgement, resistance and overthinking at the door. A meditation to still the mind, drop into the heart and trust the creative process.

Many creatives (writers, musicians, painters etc) have concluded that inspired creations are not made by the individual alone, but rather a collaboration of energies from ‘somewhere else’. If our minds are full of chatter concerning the past or future etc, there's no open space for creative inspiration to pour in. To create work that is divinely inspired, we need to ‘get out of our own way’!

Where do you find beauty?

I love this question as for me, the age-old quote, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder", deeply resonates. The concept of beauty is so different for everyone. In my understanding the definition of beauty is a subjective rather than an objective experience, a state of being ultimately internal rather than external. 

While I am most definitely inspired by the physical beauty of objects and scenic views in the natural world, for example - the morning light illuminating a tree trunk, a dew drop glistening on a gum leaf or mist settled in a valley, I also relate to the more Japanese ideal of beauty being an experience of the heart or soul. The Japanese word, "Yūgen" is defined as an 'awareness of the universe that triggers emotional responses too deep and mysterious to be described'.  Yūgen also describes a profound, mysterious sense of the beauty of the universe. 

Whether sparked by looking at a natural scene, viewing a work of art, hearing music, peering into the depths of the night sky, or reading a Zen poem, this feeling of overwhelming beauty leaves me feeling connected to something much larger than the individual self that is me. 

Silently, quiet, everything, All visible things, become this nothingness - Shinkichi Takahashi, Mixed Media and Epoxy Resin on Board, 150cm x 120cm 

What is your Artist superpower?

I think this is the hardest question of all. I've never been all that comfortable noting my artistic strengths and really relate with the Cezanne quote, 

"I could paint for a hundred years, a thousand years without stopping and I would still feel as though I know nothing".

My artistic practice is always developing and the techniques, colour palettes and materials I use within the paintings are frequently changing. 

I suppose my superpower is that I am somewhat 'free' in my art practice. Upon leaving art school I recognised the pressure that some artists place on themselves when art is their only source of income.  Sure there's certainly something fabulous about being able to be a 'full-time' artist (a term that is somewhat revered in the art world) but if selling work means controlling ones output in order to appeal to others, the work becomes somewhat shallow and deadened. I've long believed that you can feel the 'vibe' of where the artist is coming from when reflecting on an artwork and that creations fuelled by control, fear, insecurity, lack or ego can be translated through and energetically sensed by the viewer.

Early in my art career I established that I was unable to create 'pure art' with the pressure of the dollar riding so heavily on each brush stroke, so I created another income stream as an Art Therapist. It is so freeing to know that while my mortgage still gets paid, I also have the liberty to be led by creative inspiration in my artistic practice.

What does artistic courage mean to you?

Another fabulous question! 

I suppose the most courageous thing an artist can engage in is to completely follow their creative inspiration without question or restrain. To create work without overthinking and controlling the process. 

This isn't always easy though, as mentioned previously, the analytical mind often butts in to make comment on the process. I suppose like any human endeavour, the objective is to release that which is unhelpful and practise the art of trust and awareness.

Sometimes when I'm in the 'flow' or in the 'zone', the critical mind is completely absent. It is here that I feel most connected to some aspect of inspired guidance. It's as though something from the invisible gently suggests the next colour or technique to apply to the painting. Sometimes, while completely swept up in this delicious creative flow, my brush will fly out of my hand ... it's then that I realise it's time to have a break!

Making 'mistakes' is also a large part of artistic courage; a mistake being something that has occurred that you were not in control of or desiring.  It's usual that a fresh painting goes through an uncomfortable or 'ugly' phase, and by working through this discomfort, a new direction opens up. In my art practice, I've always held the motto; "If I haven't made a mistake, I haven't gone somewhere new". To go somewhere new is artistic courage.

Flow like water, Reflect like a Mirror, Respond like an echo - Chang Tzu, Mixed Media on Canvas, 152cm x 152cm

A couple of client/critic quotes or testimonials

"Connecting with Nerina, Nerina's workspace and Nerina's art has brought inspiration and warmth to our family over the past decade. An ongoing touchstone for shared values."

Collector, Ian Garratt, Camberwell

“Nerina Lascelles is an artist of rare talent. Nerina reaches across culture to create unique works which bring poetry, spirit and landscape together in an epic expression of journey through boundaries of time and space. The interplay of light and shadow in Nerina’s ethereal paintings captures the eye and the imagination as it journeys towards promise and possibility. Each piece and each viewing yields more detail and greater nuance playfully creating yet another viewing experience. Nerina’s use of resin creates even greater richness and depth while adding a glass or window-like glazing through which the viewer gains even greater clarity and appreciation of the level of detail and skill in her work. Truly immersive, Nerina's art seduces and captures the imagination and enriches our journey like no other.” 

Collector, Ayla Davis, Eltham

Nerina’s website

www.nerinalascelles.com

Nerina’s contact details for purchase enquiries

Nerina Lascelles 

0422 800 713

artist@nerinalascelles.com

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Enwrapped in billows of white clouds, I do not see the white clouds, Absorbed in the sounds of flowing water, I do not hear the flowing water - Zenrin-kushū, 2023 by Nerina Lascelles.