We were lucky to catch up with Natasha Lehman recently and have shared our conversation below.

Alright, Natasha thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Let’s jump back to the first dollar you earned as a creative? What can you share with us about how it happened?

I always knew I was an artist. When I was in grade 3 or 4 and I put my art in a show. I remember that piece was of a rainbow. I remember the thrill of having my piece on display. I think I was hooked from that point on. I continued with art lessons at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) throughout high school. Later I got my degree in Visual arts at Western Ontario. It was there I learned about all kinds of mediums including painting, photography, sculpture, video, and installation pieces as well as studying art history. I also worked as an assistant in the studio space and large darkroom that was available to students. My love for art grew but after graduating the need to have a well-paying job, and later the demands of family life, took priority. So I began a career in real estate and put my art on hold. I knew one day I would come back to it. So many times when I was doing showings downtown, I would stop at one of my favourite galleries on the way home and it would fill my soul for those brief few moments, looking at the pieces and marvelling at these artists who put themselves out there and found ways to support themselves through their craft. Yet I would have to tuck this away for a little longer. I would try and carve out time while I was working to do my art but it was the pandemic where I found time to pursue it more fully.

There was a local show up in Collingwood and I put one piece in it. It was a small piece of mine and it was of a tree and water, a Canadian Landscape scene and it sold! I couldn’t be more happy. The woman there said she connected with it, she said saw my talent and all the markings of an artist were there – composition, perspective, colour.

Natasha, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

During the pandemic, when I could paint full time it came pouring out of me. We had a place up north and I couldn’t stop painting. I think my husband thought I had lost my mind. I remember my Mom coming to visit and said oh you have a lot of work here and I thought oh no, this is nothing I have so much more I want to paint. I was going through a personal crisis, and some big changes in my family, in particular some changes with my son. I turned to painting as a way of coping. It , along with being in nature, soothed my soul. I am still not even sure why I paint landscapes but there is something about being in nature, and noticing my surroundings and really feeling the quietness of nature and seeing the beauty that I want to recollect and record and translate onto canvas, and share with the viewer. In the hopes that they will understand how nature comforts me and grounds me, and that it may do the same for them. I paint mostly Canadian landscapes scenes. I have been fortunate to travel to a lot of places across Canada – beaches and forests of Vancouver Island, Osoyoos, Banff and out East. I have also done some pieces of the coastline of California. A lot of my pieces are from the Lake Superior area. I love it up there. It is so desolate rugged and rural, you feel like you have stepped back in time. I paint in oil. I used to paint in watercolour and acrylic but once I found oil I knew I wouldn’t go back. I love the richness of colours, the slow drying time. I am an intutitive painter and I like to take my time and have the image reflect back to me and speak to me as I work. I do work from photos loosely, but I often alter it, or change the colours. Lately my work has taken a more abstract, fleeting, gestural tone. I feel those moments in nature are profound are often quick and spontaneous, like a quick revelation or something catching your eye but then it is gone and I want to paint about those moments. For me though, painting is also about healing, and later when my Dad passed away this year, I turned to my canvases and work came pouring out of me again. This time my work was more stark, and about contrast of light and dark, barren winter and fruitful summers, crossing over to other spaces. I didn’t even notice till I was done painting that I was in fact painting about my Dad who had crossed over. That is something I find so amazing about art, is that whatever you are thinking about or feeling, it just comes out, you can’t control it or hide it. Art is so very personal and healing.

What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?

I think when a viewer really connects with my work that is what I find most gratifying. I have had viewers come up to my work at a show and almost know the exact spot where something was and my work is semi abstracted landscapes so it is always a surprise they know! They will say there is feeling in Lake Superior on that coast/beach and you captured it. Or another viewer will know it was a more somber day, in the fall when I painted another piece. I feel like I am successful when viewers reflect back to me what it was I was trying to capture on canvas. I also love it when they make their own associations to my art. I had one client who bought a work of mine reach out to me and later reached out as I had only signed the back of the piece, not the front and she wondered if I could sign the front for her. So I said sure, and I asked, which piece is it, thinking she would go oh, it is the one with the pinkish sky and dark green forest or something along those lines, but instead she said to me, it is an expression of my life long dream! I thought wow, that is why I want to paint.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I find being an artist in any genre takes so much resilience. I have a whole new appreciation for all artistic endeavours and how much commitment it takes. My daughter is a young actress with some significant credits to her name and she had to learn resilience through all the auditions and learning opportunities. I find it is the same for artists. I think the amount of time we get rejected as an artist builds our strength. I have applied to my fair share of juried shows, galleries, and not gotten in but I also think this is what makes me a better artist because I know I have to work harder and develop my craft. I have been lucky that along the way I have had some success stories that have kept me going. Very early on I was accepting into Arta Gallery. I remember submitting for a particular show and they saw my work and wanted me to be a featured artist and then after the show they asked to take me on full time. I am very grateful for that opportunity and they have guided me and really let me grow as an artist. I also was accepted into the Artist project very early on in my career when I was just starting out and I am also grateful for that opportunity. I realized that people were seeing something in my art and it gave me that confirmation I need to keep going. It is ironic though, because as an artist you have to really stay true to what you want to paint and express. It is easy to get caught up in doing art that you think will sell versus what you want to paint. I have to let myself go through those expressive/ trial and error phases where I just paint with no intention or goal but to just paint and experiment. I find that it is in those periods that my art really takes a leap forward. It is hard though because you almost go through an ugly phase where your style changes. I have a funny story too, about doing art and still working as a real estate agent. I was actually selling my own home, and a couple enquired to see it as they wanted the area. So I was showing them around and we get to the basement where my studio is and the wife and husband no longer wanted to look at the house, but wanted to look at my art! They came back a week later and they never bought the house, but they bought two pieces of my art!

Contact Info:

• Website: www.natashalehman.com
• Instagram: @natashalehmanart
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/natashalehmanart