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This image shows two walls painted a warm white with a sheer curtain on the right-hand side. On the left wall there are two paintings, and on the back wall there are four. All of the paintings depict shadow patterns casted on walls from the light filtering through windows at different times of day. Descriptions of the paintings from left to right: A medium sized gray painting with eight light yellow slanted rectangles of light from a double hung window. Next a larger muddy blue painting with two large streaks of orange red light that interact with the molding of a doorframe. On the back wall another large purple brown painting full of various shapes of warm pink and yellow light meeting in the corner of a landing. And lastly a series of three smaller paintings, all purple and dusty blue, with an array of boxy shadows in light yellow, orchid, periwinkle and sky blue. Behind the curtain a soft speaker plays the singing of distant birds and cars passing. It's a peaceful atmosphere and a mindful snapshot of a quiet moment on a summer’s morning in the suburbs.

Solar Ephemera

Natalie Marshall

Oil on Canvas, 2022

Undergraduate
There is so much unknown in this stage of my life. I certainly don’t know where I will be or who I will be a year from now. With this being an inherently tumultuous time of change and liminality, I get easily overwhelmed and cope by escaping into thoughts and images that bring me peace. Solar Ephemera aims to capture the essence of what is known and comforting. This series of oil paintings and immersive environment explores the nature of nostalgia and escapism through the lens of how we actively capture and relive memory. The paintings are made using reference photographs that I have curated over the years from various places I have called home. These photographs catch the soft light and shadows that are cast during different times of day; representing the moments and flickers of light we hold on to and the snapshots of life we crave to collect. Solar Ephemera attempts to preserve the fleeting moment of childhood, the trials of growing up, and the abyss of unknowns that is being in your twenties. When my world is in undertow, I escape to these moments of stillness, calm, and beauty.