ABOUT NATALIE

I've always been drawn to the quiet significance of everyday places.

Home is more than a physical location. It's something we create through memory, experience and the small rituals of daily life. The places we know best gradually become part of us, often without us even noticing.

My practice explores these relationships through craft, painting and abstraction. Handmaking through paint or thread allows me to spend time with a place, paying attention to details that might otherwise go unnoticed.

Rather than simply representing a landscape or building, I'm interested in expressing what it feels like to know a place and the connections we form with it over time.

An easel with a colorful floral painting, a palette with mixed paint, and a table with painting supplies in a brightly lit room.

My Practice

My work sits between observation, memory and making.

Projects begin with curation and photography, while many evolve through to repetitive stitching. Rather than working towards a fixed outcome, I allow materials and process to shape the work as it develops.

I'm particularly interested in how making itself can become a way of thinking, how ideas emerge through doing rather than existing fully formed before the work begins.

A small framed artwork with abstract pastel colors, mounted on a yellow wall, with some green plant leaves in the foreground.

Alongside my studio practice, I'm completing a Master of Professional Creative Practice.

My research explores how slow-making practices, such as craft, deepen our relationship with place. Through everyday acts of making, I'm interested in how memory, material and lived experience become intertwined, allowing new understandings of home and belonging to emerge.

Rather than separating research from practice, I see each informing the other. The questions I ask in my research continue to shape the work I make in the studio, while the act of making often leads me towards ideas I hadn't anticipated.

A pile of fabric rag strip balls with frayed edges and various blue, white, and brown patterned cloths on a white surface.

Research

Abstract painting of a still life featuring flowers and foliage with varying shades of blue, white, green, yellow, and pink.

Exhibitions

My work has been exhibited throughout Hawke's Bay + NZ in galleries, community spaces and collaborative exhibitions.

Each exhibition becomes another way of exploring conversations around place, memory and belonging while inviting viewers to reflect on their own relationships with the places that have shaped them.

Abstract oil painting with pastel and vibrant colors in a wooden frame.

Artist C.V

Natalie Ngaio Rue Blackwood (Simpson)

b. 1985, Christchurch, NZ - Lives and works in Napier, Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand

Art Education

2007 - Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting (Hons), Massey University, Wellington, NZ

2026 - 2027 - Master’s in Professional Creative Practice, EIT, Napier, NZ - Currently in progress

    • 2019 - Art House, The Rabbit Room Gallery with Richard Wotton, Napier

    • 2016 - Flight, Franklin Community Gallery, Pukekohe

    • 2027 - Coming up January - Master’s exhibition - The Big Room, Hastings

    • 2025 - Arts Trail Exhibition, Creative Arts Napier, Napier

    • 2025 - Finalist, The Hawke’s Bay Arts Review, Creative Arts Napier, Napier

    • 2025 - Hawke’s Bay Art Guide Exhibition, Creative Arts Napier, Napier and Arts Inc, Hastings

    • 2024 - Arts Trail Exhibition, Creative Arts Napier, Napier

    • 2024 - Hawke’s Bay Art Guide Exhibition, Arts Inc, Hastings

    • 2023 - Harcourts Artex National Exhibition, Elephant Hill Winery, Hawke’s Bay

    • 2023 - Hawke’s Bay Art Guide Showcase, Creative Arts Napier, Napier

    • 2022 - Finalist, Changing Threads, Refinery Arts Space, Nelson

    • 2021 - Orbital, Creative Arts Napier, Napier

    • 2018 - Textile sampler for the exhibition X-Marks, Conversations in Cloth, Waitangi Treaty Grounds.

    • 2016 - Made of Snow, Steel Gallery, Franklin Art Centre, Pukekohe

    • 2026 - Stitching place - MTG

    • 2024 - 2026 - Design Lecturer at EIT

    • 2023 - REcreate - Stitching for play - Hastings Sports Centre

    • 2023 - Websites for creatives: 50 ideas to get you started, Creative Arts Napier

    • 2021 - Kids and Teen embroidery workshops, Creative Arts Napier

    • 2021 - Embroidery 101 and 102, Creative Arts Napier

    • 2019 - Unframed artist series, The Pencil Room, Napier

    • 2019 - Embroidery with Kids, MTG, Napier

    • 2016 - Freestyle stitch, Franklin Art Centre, Pukekohe

    • 2012 - Dawn, hand-tatted lace jewellery

    • Napier Weavers Club

    • Former board member, Creative Arts Napier

  • Reviews/Blog features/Press

    • The Joy of Making, by Sacha McNeil for Thrive Magazine, print and online Issue Feb/Mar 2022

    • ‘Changing Threads’ Exhibition Catalogue by Refinery Arts Space, 2022

    • How to embroider your clothes, Of Small Matters, Aug 2021 (Also published in Ensemble)

    • Home Scene Journal Interview, Aug 2020

    • Create Whimsy Artist Spotlight interview, July 2020

    • Ravon about art "Flight | Rumours", July 2016

    • Tracey (Gadget Girl) "Flight...", July 2016

    • Felt Blog "Art in fibre", April 2016

    • Ravon about art "Made of Snow", Jan 2016

    • Muir, Matthew: "Black and other colours", The Gulf, Sep 2011, pg 36-37

    • Crane, Douglas (http://salient.org.nz/arts/visual-arts/visual-arts-2), 2008

    • Kenealy, Robyn E.: The Secret Life of Cream: Test pot, 2007 (http://artbash.co.nz/forums/reviews/the-secret-life-of-cream-testpot-new-paintings-by-ngaio-simpson-and-ri)

    • Bayfield High School, yearbook cover, 2002

    • Curated Rework - an art discussion group

    • A chat with Emma Bowyer Warner about my exhibition at Upcycle in 2011 on Waiheke Radio

    • Curated rework – an art discussion group -2014

    • BloodBowl Players Pack designer for Orc’s Bay Horn

    • Editor & graphic designer, Napier Boys’ High School ‘Scindian’ 2019 - 2021’

    • Editor & graphic designer, Newsletter, Napier Boys’ High School + Scinde House, 2019-2022