Natura (2023)

Natura (2023) explores the body as both subject and symbol — a study of vulnerability, autonomy, and reclamation. Through Baroque lighting and contemporary realism, Georgina M. Cox reimagines the female form not as spectacle, but as a living monument.

⤷ When I painted Natura, I wanted to strip everything back — to see what happens when the body is shown without performance, posture, or apology. It’s about confronting visibility on your own terms; standing, literally and metaphorically, in the space between object and origin.

The figure stands on a tree stump surrounded by wild yellow flowers, neither elevated nor diminished, but rooted. There’s a quiet defiance in her stance: bare, unposed, her face cropped from view so that the body becomes its own voice. I was interested in how removing the face — the part most often associated with identity or beauty — could actually humanise the subject more deeply. She isn’t an icon to be looked at; she’s a presence to be acknowledged.

The title Natura comes from the Latin for “nature,” but also recalls natura morta — the still life tradition. That dual meaning shaped the entire composition. The human figure becomes part of a living still life, her warmth and imperfection framed against organic texture and shadow. The stump beneath her feet is symbolic too: a remnant of what was cut down, yet now functioning as a pedestal. Growth and loss coexist.

Visually, the painting borrows from Baroque chiaroscuro but applies it to a contemporary feminist context. The light is tender but unflinching, tracing skin tone and subtle asymmetries, details often softened or erased in traditional depictions of women. Here, those marks become their own kind of scripture, signs of life rather than flaws.

Thematically, Natura continues my exploration of self-image, embodiment, and quiet resistance. It asks what it means to inhabit a body in a world that demands perfection, and what happens when you refuse to meet that demand. Standing barefoot, surrounded by flowers, the figure becomes both witness and participant in her own becoming.

In the end, this painting is about return — to the earth, to the self, to the unedited truth of being alive. Natura isn’t about exposure; it’s about ownership.