Maria Natalie Skjeset, visual artist working with photo-based digital graphic artwork, fine art photography and painting.
Member of the Norwegian Association of Fine Art Photographers (Forbundet Frie Fotografer).
“My art is mainly figurative works containing elements of abstraction merged with symbolism. I tend to look beyond the everyday world for topics to blend into my pictures, like spiritual aspects and surreal dreamscapes. I am inspired by beauty, mythology and nature, and I prefer to work with organic and natural objects and subjects such as flowers, trees, animals and humans. Some of the pictures are also based on self portraits. As an artist I seek harmony, and I try to observe the aesthetic value of all things in life.
The pictures express inner, spiritual and emotional processes where the mind makes a conscious choice of colors, surfaces and shapes to create something visually harmonic. The composition contains recognizable, perishable elements, while hinting on a deeper meaning in each motif.
My working method is very intuitive where I use photography as a medium. The photographing of motifs often happens without a specific intention of what the photographs will be used for, but is more of a way to collect the pieces for the final expression. I use an autodidact technique where I’m digitally tearing the photographs apart before building up a new motif to create a painterly feel.
The pictures are created entirely by combining multiple layers of several photographs in a digital photo collage, manipulated in a digital darkroom. This photo-based technique can be described as digital graphic artwork (d.g.a). Finally the pictures are printed on archival aquarelle paper in a limited edition of 12, signed and numbered.”