Studio stories: Nadia Hussain.
On being an artist,traveling this summer and future dreams.
I visited Nadia in her art cabin, based at the bottom of her parents garden. I’m immediately invited into a cosy, slightly dimly lit area. Two paintings are mounted on the walls, an L shaped sofa covered in blankets and cushions greet me as well as the smell of candles burning in background to add to the homely feel of the safe haven that Nadia has built. By the window there are drawings hung on string twisting around softly as the late August sun peeks through.
It’s been nearly four years since I last saw Nadia, I went to high school with her. It was so special to see what she’s been doing. This interview is a slice of old classmates reminiscing and the story of a young woman determined and passionate to make art and to share it with the world.
{This post gets cut off on the email, so read it in the app or on your desktop!}
What are you doing/working on at the moment?
At the moment I'm doing a summer internship, doing some design work and marketing for a startup company in AI and finance. I run the social media and design pitch decks and various other pieces using software like Figma. I want to improve my digital skills which is why I’m dabbling into the marketing world. I love fine art but I want to expand my skill set a bit more.
Nadia shows me a commission that she’s working on and it immediately reminds me of David Hockey's work. It’s a narrow canvas with two people swimming, she used an interesting texture on top of the water to create more ripples. It’s not her usual style of abstract moody paintings, this is a lot brighter and colorful. She admits that it’s a tougher piece that she’s been asked to work on.
What is your degree?
My degree is called the Arts and Sciences, it’s an interdisciplinary subject. I love philosophy, art, the social sciences and a bit of maths. I love everything basically!
(she laughs throwing her hands in the air)
Initially I thought I'd do an art degree, I knew art was my passion. However, I know when you study art it suffocates you a bit, or it kills your love for it and I also didn’t want to miss out on all the other kinds of disciplines out there. That kind of study fuels me, it fuels my creativity.
Who or what has inspired you?
There are a couple people that come to mind, but my biggest inspiration is Miss Dovey. (our high school art teacher) she really pushed my limits; it was great to have supportive people around me but she was fussy in the best way. She just wouldn’t let me settle, she forced me to move out of my comfort zone of pen and paper and learn colour theory, composition, acrylic, oil, watercolour. It was then, when I truly learnt what it means to be an artist.
A current big inspiration is Valarie Lin, her approach to painting, her style of content and just her mindset. She is a woman who broke apart the motherboard of her computer and put it back together just to understand it better. She taught me to learn how to paint like the ways of the old masters. She taught me that painting is a discipline, and it requires discipline.
The beginnings of Nadia doing commissions and her first “big commission.”
It all started in high school, people would ask me for things like a drawing of a family member or a pet. It became a side hustle if you will, a fiver or a sketch. Slowly, I started to build up commissions it wasn’t just friends asking for art, it was people who heard I could draw and paint. My initial Instagram name was @she.draws.n.paints.
It became a thing at college where it was known that Nadia does commissions go to her if you need some art.
After A levels I took a big break from art. Then after a long break from it, one of those days I had something like an itch to draw. That’s when I knew, art is not just something I’m good at; it’s something I can’t live without.
I’m going to take you back a bit before my first big commission where everything changed for me. My sister is a writer, and she published her first book; a collection of poetry and prose, something that her followers had been asking for for some time.
At the time I was too busy with upcoming A level exams which is why I initially said no to illustrating it. So she commissioned someone else to do the cover work, but unfortunately she didn’t resonate with it. That’s when I took matters into my own hands. I convinced her I could do all the illustrations and design the cover 10 days before the release. The cover was inspired by Hogwarts.
I spent 9 hours straight on a tablet, with the help of an amazing graphic designer to translate the work digitally. It got such a great response, and that’s how I landed my first big commission.
Someone who is like an aunt of mine was building a house in Kent. She reached out to me after seeing the book and wanted to commission me for some projects. However, the sizes she wanted were just too big for the space that I was working in, which was my bedroom that I was sharing with my sister. This size of work would take weeks to finish too and not just a small canvas you can put away. So I saved up that summer to build my cabin at the back of my parent's garden, so I could finally have a space of my own and to work on these big pieces.
I did the commission, and it was sent off to the framers. The owner called up one day and joked that it was a hassle but he said that customers that were coming in were trying to buy it! He said that if he had ownership of it, he would have sold it by now. They were offering 3-4 times the price of what I charged! So that was the point I realised that I had to make this happen in some way.
So, you were in America this summer, how was the trip?
I was in America for a month to see some family, and I did a little bit of traveling too. I was in Michigan and New York, I thought I’d love New York more but my heart ended up yearning for Michigan. I love nature, I love a quiet life and slow living. (That’s why I've tried to make my cabin feel like it’s in the middle of the woods.) In some ways, it felt like I was back home in Bangladesh, the way all my cousins were together, in a way that I never got to experience back home.
My cousins, and I went on so many road trips. We went to Canada, Toronto, Niagara Falls. When we were in New York, we went to Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New Jersey and upstate New York. I loved it.
I wrote a diary entry, that encapsulates my time in Michigan.
Nadia wrote about her cousins and the road trip that they did together. It captures the close bond she’s formed with her 2 cousins from America. It’s a nostalgic piece that is close to her heart.
( The Monet inspiration is shining here ^)
She expresses her thoughts on posting on Instagram:
I often get told to post this many times a day or certain types of content that’ll blow up. While they may be right, I don’t know, I want my posts to feel authentic, to feel real. So I post the things I want to, when I want to. I sometimes write the captions with snippets of diary entries.
(as she’s speaking her tone softens)
What inspires my art is telling stories, I want people to look at my art and feel like they’re inside of it. Our job as artists is to make people feel, and to make them think. It is almost our duty. Because people’s lives are so busy and they don’t always have the time to process how they feel, it’s our job to provoke it.
On traveling more:
Getting to travel more in the last two years has made me more conscious and more observant of what’s around me, and so when I make art, I’m thinking, ‘how do I capture the essence of the place’.
I am now starting to work from my own pictures. Before I travelled, I’d paint pictures of the places I wanted to be. Which I still do, but when I paint from my own photos, it takes on a whole new meaning.
My dream is to go to Italy, not just because all the famous artists have painted there but because I'm in love with the landscape. It’s the place I want to be. My favourite film is “Letters to Juliet” where the protagonist travels to Verona where Romeo and Juliet is set. The Vineyards, the cobbled streets, I love that sort of scenery!
How did you find your style?
One thing Miss Dovey said was:
“DON’T USE THE WORD UNIQUE IN ART”, because it only describes your ignorance. Imagine the many centuries of painters and artists, whatever you think is ‘unique’ and ‘new’, trust me, someone's already done something just like it. I used to feel disheartened by that. But then I realised, it’s not about creating something completely unique and never been seen before, rather it’s about making what you love, what resonates with you, and adding your own experience and twist to it. That way, every piece of art is different and ‘unique’, even if something similar has been done before.
Finding a style is not something that happens straight away. Regardless of what creative field you’re in, you naturally want to distinguish yourself. I used to think I needed to choose a style and stick to it forever. It doesn’t quite work like that. It’s about first learning all kinds of techniques and types of art and then seeing what you naturally gravitate towards. This ‘style’ came naturally to me, I’d say it’s somewhat realistic but not hyperrealism, and often has some abstract elements to it. I didn’t even know that I had a style, until someone saw a piece and asked if Nadia had done it.
Somewhere down the line, I fell in love with poetry and cinematography and romanticising life. Seeing your life like it’s a movie. I used to watch movies thinking how unrealistic they were, that this wouldn’t happen in real life. You just have to pay more attention.When I started to pay attention by sketching what otherwise might’ve gone unnoticed, I saw it all around me.
Real life is as romantic as you make it.
She shows me her journal, it’s filled with pictures, scraps of paper that she’s collected, sentences from people that she’s spoken to. It felt like a glimpse of what it’s like in Nadia’s head.
We’re looking at a picture of a classmate from university, they’re in the art class checking for ink on her hands, it’s almost comical at how perfect the scene is.
{It’s almost as if she’s questioning everything in her existence in that moment.}
Nadia decides to flip the questions to me, she asked:
What kind of style or aesthetic do you think of when you think of me?
You have an eclectic style, with lots of vintage vibes. You have a Monet flare.
What does my Instagram feel like?
It feels like a diary, it feels very intimate like you’re speaking to me, or rather your Instagram followers. It's the way you approach things, you post with intention. It’s about high quality content.
(I find interesting that she asked me these questions, she’s someone that I see that has a distinctive style.)
What would you tell your 16-year-old self?
I would tell her, don’t think that this is a goodbye. You might not know it now; art is going to be in your life forever. Even if the people around you don’t know what it means to make a career out of art, it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
I don’t think I knew the possibility and how far I could go and how much better I could be.
Art isn’t something I'm good at, it’s something I love. I love it for what it is.
I say to her “Something I think about is how I'm living the dream life that 16-year-old me wanted.” Nadia smiles and shouts “It’s something that I think about all the time! YES!”
Lastly, what does the future look like for you?
I want to expand from commissions and explore my style more. I want to create collections and bodies of work with different meanings and stories. I want to work with galleries and make my art accessible through prints and other formats. I want to teach people and inspire them through workshops and classes. I want to connect people through my art. I want to make them feel. I want to make them think.
Make sure to follow Nadia on Instagram, to follow her journey.
Was such a pleasure to be part of this! Can’t wait to see more from you! ❤️