Natalie Italiano

ARTIST

Natalie Italiano is a contemporary realist painter whose work is grounded in extensive classical training and motivated by a continual search for beauty and the challenge of solving new visual problems. Working primarily from observation, she paints a variety of subjects, including portraits, still life, landscape, and animals. Her paintings are rooted in realism but are not photographic interpretations. She is interested in the sensitivity and design of a painting and in the expressive possibilities of shape, light, color, and paint.

Italiano began her formal training as an apprentice to renowned portraitist Nelson Shanks and continued her studies at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. She later studied with Shanks at Studio Incamminati in Philadelphia, where she taught for 18 years as a member of the core faculty. During her tenure, she also served in leadership roles. She is now Faculty Emerita. An accomplished portrait painter, Italiano is a Signature Member of the Portrait Society of America.

Throughout her career, Italiano has embraced a variety of subjects and approaches, often working in series as a way to explore an idea more deeply. Her work has included portraits, figures, still life, animals with gilded backgrounds, and landscapes. She views creativity as an ongoing process of discovery and evolution, allowing curiosity to lead her toward new subjects and ways of working rather than limiting herself to a single approach.

Her interest in plein-air painting has opened a new avenue for this exploration. Following recent plein-air work in Alaska, Italiano is now turning her attention to the landscape of Italy, a country with which her family has longstanding connections. Working directly from the landscape, she is interested in studying the particular light and color of each place while exploring its underlying shapes and design.

Italiano maintains a studio in Collingswood, New Jersey, and is represented by Rutledge Street Gallery in Camden, South Carolina. Her work can be seen at natalieitaliano.com and on Instagram @nataliejitaliano.