Today Natalie makes her living selling her art online, teaching and framing out of Gallery Gwyn in Aberaeron.
Her current show, which is at Canfas Art Gallery in Cardigan in Ceredigion until 30 November, is her ninth solo exhibition.
She said her career had been forged through “absolute perseverance”.
Using her living room as a studio, she creates her paintings using old photos which “get reimagined” using charcoal and acrylic and occasionally mixed media such as spray paint and pastels.
“My work is autobiographical because I don’t really know how not to be,” she said.
“But there’s that child that’s still in me that’s like, ‘oh, don’t tell anybody the truth because they’ll think you’re this or that’ – that doesn’t ever really leave you,” she said.
She hopes people recognise themselves in her art and wants it to spark conversation.
She is on a mission to “make the art world more inclusive and approachable” and works for a charity offering free art and music classes to 11-19-year-olds.
One way to achieve this, she believes, is ensuring all schools offer children the opportunity to study creative subjects at school, such as music, textiles and drama.
“The arts have become expensive hobbies for the rich when it should be accessible to all,” she said.
She also wants to see more galleries taking a risk on the art they show.
“There’s a lot of deprivation in Wales, there’s lots of stories that aren’t being told on gallery walls,” she said.
“Who better to have interesting stories about their lives than people who’ve gone through things – to me the most interesting thing is people who face challenges and come through them, that’s where the richness of life is.”
