Artistry Of Lancashire – Natalie Haycock

Natalie Haycock strikes me as a hugely passionate and enthusiastic young artist – determined to forge her creative path through life and establish herself firmly as an artist “to watch” for the future.

Certainly to date she has made rapid progress. Just over a year ago she gave up her full-time job working for the Ministry of Justice to pursue an art career full time. She had completed a Computing degree believing it to be the “sensible thing to do” before finally conceding that she was on the wrong path, and so took the brave choice to leap off.

Natalie produces drawings rendered in charcoal, graphite pencil and fine liner pens. Her speciality is animals and in April she produced four small bee designs, which lead to her making over sixty hand drawn images which flew off literally all around the UK and even some to Australia. She held a raffle online for a collection of larger bee drawings she’d produced, which was met with an enthusiastic response and she now has beekeepers from all over the world among her social media followers.

Social media has inevitably played a key role in helping Natalie to get established. Her audience began to amass after she had posted a drawing of her fiancé’s horse to Facebook and shared it within local groups. Last Christmas as her popularity was rising, she became flooded with commission requests and of course this year, with all of us stuck at home for so long and people taking a more active interest in art online, Natalie has continued to attract attention online.

Natalie describes her work as “proving a snapshot of a moment in (an) animal’s life” – drawing you in and connecting with it through its eyes. She feels that if the viewer isn’t drawn in by the creature's gaze, she hasn’t done her job properly.

And she feels that animals are much more intelligent and complex than we give them credit for. And Natalie’s talent too is perhaps more than meets the eye in that she is entirely self-taught. Having been creative from an early age, she can’t explain how she came to teach herself to draw – it simply came naturally to her. She was given some sticks of willow charcoal to use by her mother – anyone who has tried to use this medium will testify it isn’t the easiest one to master. For Natalie, she just wanted to draw a picture of the rapper Tupac – and so she did. Even to this day she admits she doesn’t really know about themes or her creative approach; she hasn’t researched or studied what she does, so in effect, her work is perhaps just an unconscious manifestation of her natural ability. She likes to draw whatever catches her attention and spurs her creative vision. Natalie sums it up quite succinctly herself: “I get an idea in my head and I run with it.”

This year she has also painted for the first time; using acrylic on canvas. She has also had her first print made: a charcoal drawing of half a lion’s face entitled “Got My Eye on You.” Lockdown inevitably put paid to her hopes to exhibit in galleries and local shows this summer, but instead she used the time to focus on expanding her own portfolio. All her previous work had been from peoples’ personal photo commissions, so this year she has created a collection of her own images, and meanwhile been arranging for her work to be reproduced in giclee print format.

Natalie is a very proud Mancunian: she says it’s a very vibrant and cultural city which makes everyone feel welcome. She sees colour all around – citing the city centre as a visual representation of the city’s artistic nature: it is adorned with murals and decorated shop fronts, not to mention the myriad arts shops and galleries showing art of all kinds. She has felt grateful for the support of her fellow Mancunians and she feels the city is an excellent platform for artists right across the spectrum.
Natalie also draws inspiration from another very famous artist hailing from the area - L.S. Lowry. She feels that the two of them would get along quite well; she thinks he would “get her vibe.” She aligns herself to a quote of his: “I don’t care tuppence for what they do in London in the art world. It doesn’t concern me. I don’t think of it. All I am concerned with is doing my own thing in my own way… as well as I can.” It was his stubborn resilience to keep doing what mattered to him and what he was good at - rather than bending to the wishes of others - that she admires.

And in pursuance of her own goals, beside her full-time work as an artist and sending bees buzzing all across the globe; come September Natalie will also be embarking on a Masters degree in Entrepreneurship.

But, she says, she is still resolutely determined to participate in upcoming shows and exhibitions – so if anyone knows of any, please do drop her a line so she can enter.

Natalie can be found on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/nataliehaycock.art/ and on Instagram @nataliehaycock_art