Natalie Bessell grew up in California and has lived in Australia since 2021. She is a multi-disciplinary artist, with a background in painting. Featuring figurative and abstract elements, her recent work primarily involves oil pastels on wood and painted glaze on ceramics.

She draws inspiration from her life as a mother in a semi-rural beach town on the Mornington Peninsula, in the outskirts of Melbourne. Themes of nature, fertility, motherhood, and femininity have pervaded her work both before and after she became a mother. This reflects her more general fascination with the intersection of that which is ordinary and that which is magnificent.

In September 2025, Bessell was awarded No Vacancy Gallery’s Annual Art Prize, earning a solo exhibition in August 2026.

Education
Athenaeum Art Center, 2006–2008
School of Visual Arts, 2009–2010
Study of Botanical Illustration, New York Botanical Garden, 2014

Selected Exhibitions
Brunswick Street Gallery, Melbourne, 2024
Outré Gallery, Melbourne, 2024, 2025
Fenton and Fenton, Melbourne, 2022–Present
Off the Kerb Gallery, Melbourne, 2021, 2023

Awards / Recognitions
Selected for Fenton & Fenton’s Rising Artist Exhibition, 2021
Selected for La Jolla Atheneum Juried Show, California, 2015, 2024
No Vacancy Gallery Annual Art Prize Winner, 2025