Hello!
I'm Nat and I live in a wee village, near Loch Ness, in the Highlands of Scotland.
My first passion has always been art and design. My grandad was very encouraging of me from a young age. He spent ages with me painting or colouring and creating my ‘dream’ house on MS Paint when I travelled south to visit and was continuously supportive of everything I did growing up.
When I was little I wanted to become an engineer or an architect and began studying towards these futures but studying Graphic Communication in school made me realise how much I enjoyed drawing and design. In my last few years of school, I went back to the art studios and worked on qualifications in Art and Design.
This led me to two colleges, working on a portfolio in Inverness and then to Glasgow to do a HND in Visual Communications. After finishing my HND, I was accepted into Edinburgh Napier University where I graduated with a BDes (Hons) Design and Digital Arts in 2015. Here, I experimented with different crafts and technologies and as part of my major project, created a brief for a new light festival in Inverness which gained some press.
After graduating, I had decided it was time to see the world and so organised an internship in Shanghai, China as a Graphic Designer. I lived and worked there for a little over a month and learned so much about the design industry I had loved so much but ultimately, after experiencing life working in a school, I decided to change my career.
I continued to travel around the world after obtaining a TEFL qualification, teaching English in Romania, Thailand and online to students all over the world before returning home to become a student teacher. I am now a fully qualified teacher back in my hometown.
Throughout the years I’ve dabbled with the idea of selling my drawings, paintings, paper cuttings and other works and after an intense few years of study to become a teacher, I finally decided it was time. During the summer holidays, I finally picked up a pencil and a pen and got busy drawing again. I uploaded a few mandala drawings to my personal Facebook page which gained attention and from this, decided to give it a go.
I've since expanded on hand drawn artworks and prints to produce cards, colouring books, coasters and lots more! I'm always exploring different products or printing techniques and hopefully soon will have a new colouring book available along with a new range of products.
I’d like to take this opportunity to thank any and all who have liked, commented or shared my posts and to all of my customers so far for their support, my Grandad for always encouraging and supporting me and my parents who have always supported me, no matter what.
Tack så mycket,
Nat Smith