Natasha Estanga's paintings collapse the conventional opposition between materiality and symbolism, process and abstraction. The titles she affixes to her paintings often function as semaphores, a kind of hovering ambiguity which conceals as much as it reveals. At bottom, her paintings are replete with the kind of gestural layering, coloration, and textures that only oil on canvas can create.
Estanga's palette can utilize earthen colors (greens, oranges, turquoise) or more radically subjective combinations, like a subdued red mixed with white and black. Whether they realize a sense of discord or a sense of calming tranquility, Estanga's colors work to anchor her subject-matter — an emotion, person, or idea — within an atmospheric space. Carmin Ftalocianina, for example, despite its overt abstraction, seems to gesturally recreate the tonality of the name given as the painting’s title. The work is infused with gestural tracings, like the motivations that emerge from a person's character; simultaneously, the painting feels entirely organic, the thick layers of paint lending the picture an almost sculptural appearance.
