About

I’m Nata Coneja

I paint to remember what I love, and to help others treasure what they don’t want to forget. Always with care and tenderness.

Nata Coneja, a Colombian artist who paints portraits and landscapes in oil and watercolor. I usually paint alla prima in oil, and I also work in watercolor. I paint landscapes from life and portraits of people I find beautiful in their uniqueness, whether during a wedding or in a quiet moment.

How I got here

Painting has been guiding me all my life, in one way or another. I started painting consciously about 20 years ago, when I decided to try oil paint for the first time. Since then, I’ve been running a race against myself, learning all I can with a kind of obsessive discipline, in the best sense.

Maybe you’ve heard someone say, “painting is as necessary as breathing.”

Life gave me enough reasons to discover that it’s true for me. I don’t just paint to feel whole, I also paint to soothe the aches of being alive.

As an artist, my goal is not only to create beauty, but to preserve memories through careful, heartfelt painting. Every portrait or landscape I create is a bridge between emotion and form.

My background

I’ve been painting for 20 years, 8 of those years spent painting landscapes outdoors.

I earned a Bachelor’s degree in Visual Arts and a Master’s degree in Aesthetics and Creation.

I’ve also developed personal projects like Miniaturas de Nata Coneja and The Self-Referential Body as a Possibility of Limit, among others.

Why I paint at weddings and events

During the quarantine, I came across Maggie, an artist from Atlanta who paints at weddings, and I discovered this beautiful possibility of sharing my painting experience in a new way.

Right then, I set myself a personal challenge: to paint 100 landscapes from life in order to refine my technique and be able to offer a service worthy of such a special occasion.

When I paint a portrait, I try to make the person, or their family, see something of their essence in it. I focus on details: the way their eyes and mouth move, how their hair is always parted, or that one accessory they always wear like a signature. I want the painting to bring them close again, and for the memory of that moment to return gently.

I want to create a kind of Proust’s madeleine with paint for each story.

Studio and Live painting

Painting in the studio is my time for stillness and introspection, for analyzing my own creative process and pursuing constant refinement. I let myself wander through color and brushwork.

Painting live, on the other hand, is joy. It’s the moment I get to meet others through emotion.

I watch how their expressions shift, from uncertainty as they see the first brushstrokes, to wonder when they recognize themselves in the finished piece.

It fills me with happiness. I dress for the occasion, literally. I become part of the celebration, part of this beginning for two people surrounded by love. And I get to capture all of it in paintings that will stay with them, reminding them of where it all began.

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