Later, due to her illness, Natalie joined them. Natalie’s father was a Socialist and the re-election of Margaret Thatcher was more than he could bear !!! Her father eventually was offered a temporary teaching post at the University of Braga, near Porto and he and his wife travelled to Portugal. Unfortunately, the job offer fell through but they still decided to leave England. In the meantime, her parents had taken the decision to leave England and return to Greece where her father had been offered a job. Her weight at that time was down to below eighty pounds. Her illness was due to her excessive alcohol consumption combined with a debilitating eating disorder. However, her university plans were abandoned when she became very unwell. Her reason for choosing this combination of subjects was less to do with future career ideas but more to do with the fact that she would get to spend time in Brazil and France. Natalie returned to the UK where she had a place at Leeds University to study French and Brazilian Portuguese. Self portrait as Marie Antoinette by Natalie Papamichael (2018) There she began working as an au pair, an occupation her sister had undertaken years before. Subsequently she was offered a place on the “Reserve List” but still feeling aggrieved that they had turned her down initially, she rejected the place and decided to spend her “Gap Year” in Paris, where she had some friends and relatives. Natalie left the college in 1989 and applied for a place on an Art Foundation Course but was rejected. In 1987, having achieved good grades in nine GCSE subjects, she attended the Further Education establishment of Amersham College where she attained her A Levels in French, English Literature and Art. Natalie started her schooling, aged five, at the Seer Green Church of England Primary School in 1976, and in 1983 she moved to the Chesham High School, Buckinghamshire where she remained until the age of sixteen. Self portrait as Medusa by Natalie Papamichael (2016) Her only sibling, a sister, Helen, was born in May 1968. Natalie’s father, a mathematician, worked at Brunel University in the Uxbridge area of west London, and her mother worked at the French Consulate in central London. They married in Athens in 1965 and had intended to live in Greece but a far-right military junta overthrew the caretaker government that ruled the country in April 1967 and the couple decided that it would be safer to stay and live in England. She moved to the UK in order to study English and it was in London that the couple met.
Natalie’s mother, Nicole, is French and came from Paris. He and his brother left Egypt to study in UK in 1956.
Her father Nicholas came from Greek and Cypriot parentage and grew up in Alexandria, Egypt. She has one sister, Helen, who is three years older than her. Natalie was born on September 5th 1971 in Slough, Berkshire. Natalie Papamichael in her studio with some of her paintings However, let me start this story before she was born and as we meander along her life’s path, I will introduce you to some of her paintings. My artist today, Natalie Papamichael, who is based in Brighton on the south coast of England where she has her own studio, which I was fortunate to visit. Her works, which I will show you, are hard-hitting and thought-provoking and although they may not be liked by all, I am amazed by them and of course you all well know that I like paintings with a background story. She is strong-willed and holds very strong opinions with regards feminism and things that face us with twenty-first century living.
She is an utterly fascinating person, as are her works of art.
I have told you on a few occasions that I tend to write about artists who have passed away and steer clear of living artists as they may take offence about what I have written! My featured artist in the next two blogs is a living painter who I was fortunate to meet and talk to her about her art.
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