Nathalie Caleyron Donnelly is originally from France but has lived in North Belfast for over 30 years.  She works part-time as a union organiser for UNISON (focussing mostly on members working in Private Nursing Homes and on Black and Migrant Worker members in the union).

Nathalie discovered printmaking through a workshop in Seacourt Print Workshop 5 years ago. It was a ‘love at first sight’ experience and she has been involved in printmaking and a member of Seacourt since.

Her limited edition / handpulled prints, are mostly multiplate lino, often with an element of monoprinting.

Statement

My prints tend to centre around my ‘happy places’. The safe havens you go to to when you close your eyes : special places, friends, cherished memories, favourite cafés. As lockdown kicked in, my ‘happy places’ had to be found around the house and in ordinary every day life at home.

As much as I recognise the importance of artists taking a political stand and using their medium to make people think, I have always used art as a refuge away from everything, away from politics and from work. It is my sanctuary into the little universe where I feel happy, safe and carefree.

So for more engaged art, I turn to others.

And for my shot of dopamine... I print!