KINGSTON, Jamaica— Visual Artist Natali Daley-Grünenfelder speaks through her pieces by highlighting the beauty of African women with a major focus on helping others to develop a positive outlook on African culture.

Daley-Grünenfelder is a graduate of the Edna Manley College of the Visual and Performing arts with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Visual Communication. While there, she was exposed to traditional paintings, illustration, jewellery making and graphic design which changed her approach to art.

For as long as she can remember she has always held a special place in her heart for art.

“I would always try to replicate paintings around the house by sitting around the table staring at paintings for as long as I could and recreate them. If there was a shoebox I would make a TV out of it so I was always very creative,” explained Daley-Grünenfelder.

During her time at St Andrew High School for Girls, she placed fourth nationally in her first year of the Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examinations (CAPE). Her art teacher at the time inspired her to hone her skills even more and come out of her comfort zone. This eventually encouraged her to pursue art in higher education.

The young artist then went on to discover that her creative passion primarily lies in Afrocentrism, which is apparent in several of her paintings.

“My exposure to African art and culture sparked my interest in highlighting the beauty and diversity of this rich continent and its people. I believe that more people need to be exposed to the beauty of Africa as opposed to simply focusing on the negative aspects which are constantly being highlighted in the media,” said Daley-Grünenfelder.

As Daley-Grünenfelder continues to establish herself as a Jamaican artist, she wants to cement herself as a creative pioneer for African beauty and culture. Her artistic style uses line design and patterns with a vectorized look in her paintings which may be portrait, landscape or surrealist.

“A lot of my pieces tend to have a vectorized look and feel, almost looking as if it is a digital image when it is actually a traditional means of painting with acrylic watercolour and ink,” Daley-Grünenfelder told OBSERVER ONLINE.

Daley-Grünenfelder’s signature art style also includes a lot of bright rich colours inspired by her muse Richard Hall who has a distinct approach to creating abstract art pieces that use a burst of bold colours that usually depict women. Leonid Afremov has also inspired her landscape paintings with his use of fall colours.

Before any piece is created, she ensures that she does a lot of research and collects references to accurately represent a particular theme or concept that she has been given to work with.

Daley-Grünenfelder is also a Digital Marketing professional, however, making art pieces has become another full-time job for her.

“After work, I would be working throughout the night on paintings. I also teach paintings or do private tutoring from time to time at paint and sips,” explained Daley-Grünenfelder.

With two full-time jobs, she stays motivated through her undying love for art.

“It isn’t always just work for me. I genuinely enjoy painting so there are times where I won’t take any orders at all because I just want the freedom to create without the influence of others.”

She has also built connections with other artists on her creative journey by participating in Paint Jamaica, which was one of the first groups of artists who started painting the murals downtown. Moving forward, she stated that she would like to network and travel more to apply cultural and geographic influences to her work.

“I would love my work to be seen in different countries. I am getting orders now from different countries but I would want it to be on a much larger scale,” expressed Daley-Grünenfelder.

Natali Daley-Grünenfelder’s African inspired art, her portfolio and contact details can be found @natdaley_art on Instagram.