A Fragmented Mountain

This diptych grew out of my first year living in the Blue Mountains. I was still finding my footing - learning the rhythms of a place that is nothing like the city, learning what it means to be held by landscape rather than surrounded by it.

The colours came instinctively: the reds and oranges of rock baking in afternoon sun, the deep greens of bush tucked into gullies, flashes of blue sky breaking through. The forms pushed toward abstraction because that's how the mountains felt to me that year - not as a view, but as a presence. Something ancient and structural, humming underneath everything.
The two panels face each other across a gap, almost like two cliff faces across a valley. Two states of being - the overwhelm and the wonder, the disorientation and the deep, slow settling in. All those fractured shapes pushing against each other, all that colour trying to hold everything at once.

That was me, trying to make sense of somewhere new that was starting to feel, quietly and unexpectedly, like home.

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I’ve always believed that art reveals itself in the quiet and the overlooked—sunlight dancing on a wall, the curve of a worn object, or the stillness before a storm.

To me, these moments are gentle invitations to create, to explore, and to see the extraordinary within the ordinary.

My work grows from curiosity and a constant dialogue with the world around me. The natural environment is my grounding force—its textures, tones, and raw unpredictability remind me that nothing stays the same, and that’s what makes it beautiful. I’m drawn to experimentation, to pushing different mediums beyond their comfort zones, letting the materials surprise me as much as I hope to surprise others.

Whether through photography, paint, or mixed materials, I approach each piece as an emotional response to my surroundings.

I rely on instinct as much as intention, allowing play and spontaneity to guide the process.

Art, for me, isn’t about perfect execution but about honest expression—an ever-evolving conversation between self, spirit, and nature.

In the end, I create not to capture control, but to honour the fleeting, beautiful disorder of life.

Every piece is a reminder that art, much like nature itself, thrives in movement, change, and a little bit of wonder.

An extensive collection of all my art not featured here can be found at: www.natannadas.com.au