An Interview with Kristine Nason: Best Professional & Established – VAA Artist of the Year 2025 and June Member of the Month

Cara Roberts – Artist Feature – VAA Member of the Month June 2026

Kristine Nason is a Southern-England based multidisciplinary artist whose work moves fluidly between traditional and contemporary practices. With a focus on equestrian art and portraiture, her career reflects a strong record of achievement and professional recognition, with notable achievements including: The Winner of VAA Professional & Established Artist of the Year 2025, Highly-Commended Finalist: British Art Prize 2023, Finalist: VAA Professional Artist Award 2023, The Winner of SAA Professional Artist of the Year 2023.

Growing up in the English countryside, Kristine quickly developed a deep love for horses – her true appreciation for them began when her great-grandfather, who was a professional artist, encouraged her to observe, understand, and translate their beauty into art. By the age of just 14, she sold her first equine painting to local galleries, and from that point onwards, she became a regular exhibitor. Kristine initially trained as a graphic designer and worked in advertising before pursuing a career in Fine Art as an artist/print-maker. She ran a fine-art publishing company with two London galleries and an international distribution network for their limited-edition silk-screens and lithographs. Her career changed course when she had children – she became a successful watercolourist specialising in equestrian art and portraiture, quickly growing an audience of keen buyers. She became busy with commissioned work; exhibited with National art societies, and was elected to full membership of both the Society of Women Artists and the Society of Equestrian Artists. Kristine has taught portraiture and equestrian art in watercolour through workshops and demos to art groups, and to students on a 1-to-1 basis in her studio. Her work also has extended to involvement in various art committees, working as an illustrator, and teaching drawing courses for the Open University. Along the way she’s written or featured in various magazine articles, including International Artist, American Art Collector, and Paint & Create.

Although Kristine always liked to experiment with styles and materials, her creative output was essentially realist art. There did, however, come a point where she started to question her attachment to correctness and detail, and felt that her art was lacking authenticity. In 2020 she began studying advanced-level oil painting. This was the catalyst for a complete re-evaluation of the way she thinks about art, and discovered a new creative voice. She realised that the quest for perfection was stifling the joy of making art, and from then on she allowed serendipity into her process. These days she navigates between two distinct bodies of work – the equestrian art which has always been part of her identity, and now, a series she calls the ‘Ghana Narratives’. With a Ghanaian husband and two children, and living between cultures, the Ghana Narratives are a document of what she sees and experiences when she’s in that country. She learns from her husband as they embrace each other’s cultures, yet share the same values, and watch their children as they negotiate the complexities of liminal identity. These works explore the colour and rhythm of daily life around their home in coastal Accra, and there are stories to be told. As a concerned observer she will sometimes use her art to spotlight the challenges of colonial legacy, environmental pollution and exploitation, all wrapped up in the resilience and dignity of communities who bear the burden.

A typical day for Kristine is not linear. She lives a robust life, not just as a full-time artist, but a wife, mother, and grandmother. Exercise, music, and cooking also play a key part in Kristine’s life – allowing her creativity to seep through in more ways than one. Unfortunately, due to her Type 1 Diabetes, she is prone to sudden debilitating drops in blood sugar, and when this happens she has to take a break until normal function returns. This can be as long as 45 minutes, which really affects how much she can achieve during her working day. Due to this, she has learnt to monitor herself constantly and use her time as best as she can.

To learn more about her work, visit: https://www.kristinenason.com

What is your creative process? What outlook guides you?

Being noticed by curators, gallerists, and the movers and shakers of the art world. Being offered solo shows by high-profile venues and institutions. Invitations to collaborate with big brands. Most of all, having a recognisable style and a unique voice that denotes an artist as a leading figure in their sector.

What are some of the accomplishments you are most proud of? What are some of the highlights from the past 15 months?

When I was a tiny child, with a pencil in my hand and a heart full of
determination, my great-grandfather (who had earned a good living as a
professional artist) taught me not just to look, but to see: to observe every
nuance and character of the horses that I so badly wanted to draw. Through
constant practice I began to understand their patterns of movement and their
nature, so that eventually I could draw them very convincingly. That helped me
enormously in my career as an equestrian artist and portrait painter. However,
it became a handicap later, when I moved towards abstraction!
Practice and perseverance are constant mantras that help me sustain the flow
of creation, and for any exhibiting artist it’s important to treat rejection by any
exhibition/competition as part of the learning process, and move on.

What do you find hardest about improving your arts profession? What are your current obstacles?

Having two distinct bodies of work, both of which are strong and meaningful to me, means I’m at a cross-roads. For a long time I’ve felt held back from promoting either of them (or myself as an artist) by the conflict in my mind, as I realise that curators look for artists with one unified body of work. However, in the coming year, rather than brushing one of them under the carpet, my plan is to lean into this duality as an opportunity for growth and clarity. Despite the differences, I know that both strands of work carry my creative values and commitment to beauty, emotion, and storytelling. I want to experiment with bridging-pieces, creating a small series that subtly blends elements from
equestrian and Ghanaian lenses. Meanwhile, I’ll be working flat-out to extend both individual ranges and see where it takes me!

In my first year of membership with the VAA, I was absolutely thrilled to be selected as a Finalist for the Artist of the Year 2023 Professional Artist Award. Three of my artworks were included in a virtual exhibition, and the whole experience gave me a great sense of validation and boosted my confidence. Being a VAA member brings a sense of community. I often take advantage of the wide range of zoom sessions: they’re helpful, targeted, and pertinent to artists at all stages of their careers. I’ve found the Vault on the VAA website is an outstanding resource of information for working artists, and I often turn to it. I’m also pleased to be covered by the insurance that comes with VAA membership, and I was able to terminate a subscription to another arts organisation I only kept for the insurance cover. All this has been amazing, but for me the most beneficial part of being part of the VAA community is access to Mentoring. At the time of writing I’ve only had a couple of sessions, and I had to stop while I got my act together. But Karen is very patient and wise and I’m looking forward to our next session!

Is there anything you would like to say to the artist you were a year ago?

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