A Collector of Light, Colour, and Memories
Step into the magical world of Natalia Noszczyńska, Polish illustrator and designer
Hi, my name is Natalia. I am an illustrator, designer and landscape architect - although I think of myself primarily as a collector of light, colour, and memories.
I create in duo with Sebastian Luczywo, photographer, and author of our books, in a studio we have named Black Dog Studio - a place where the everyday mixes with the imagination and the past with the present.
Natalia Noszczyńska - Illustration inspired by Polish folclore and traditions by Natalia NoszczyńskaPolish Association of Rural Women's Clubs
‘Slavs’
Since 2022, we have been jointly developing the original project ‘Slavs’, which grows from the roots - from the ancient beliefs, stories, rituals, and colours that the land of our ancestors remembers.
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In 2024, our first children's book, 'The Slavic Wheel of the Year' was published - it's a story about time and its rhythms, where the names of the months come from and what each season brings.
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It is an attempt to record ancient traditions in a language that is understandable and beautiful for the youngest. More books are already sprouting on paper.
Natalia Noszczyńska - Illustration inspired by Polish countryside and seasons of the year by Natalia NoszczyńskaPolish Association of Rural Women's Clubs
‘Journeys’
I look for inspiration in nature and in my travels - those far away and those closest to me, often leading merely to the neighbouring street, to the shade of an old tree.
‘Journeys’
I like to stop at things that usually escape the eye: a rusty hinge, a noble stone shape, a branch with a line like a drawing. I photograph what delights me - architectural details, fragments of landscape, traces of history on the walls and among the leaves.
Natalia Noszczyńska - Illustration inspired by Polish countryside and seasons of the year by Natalia NoszczyńskaPolish Association of Rural Women's Clubs
I have a weakness for the navy blue colour. There is something of the night sky in it - the one covered in stars and the one that holds its breath before a storm. For me, navy blue is the space between dreaming and waking.
Maybe that is why I am so close to fairy tales - those of my childhood, illustrated by Szancer, and those I spin now, with illustrations. At art high school in Kraków, my spiritual guides were Wyspiański, Mehoffer, and Chagall.
Their work taught me that it is possible to see more and deeper.
Natalia Noszczyńska - Illustration inspired by Polish countryside and folclore by Natalia NoszczyńskaPolish Association of Rural Women's Clubs
Although I live in Kraków now, my roots are in the Beskid Sądecki region. I was born there, I used to spend my holidays there - at my grandparents' house, among the fields, orchards, and gardens.
It was there that I learned the flavours straight from the earth and the joy of running barefoot through the dew. The forest was my world - full of secrets, sounds and smells.
My love of landscape led me to study landscape architecture. For a while, drawing gave way to plans and maps, but it never left me. I was still drawing - in automatic pencil, precisely, with a sensitivity to detail.
Natalia Noszczyńska - Illustration inspired by Polish countryside and folklore by Natalia NoszczyńskaPolish Association of Rural Women's Clubs
It was then that I learned how to create with thousands of tiny lines - today it's my trademark.
Working in Landscape Parks, I was lucky to see how diverse and beautiful Poland is. Malopolska - with its hills, ruins, chapels and paths - has stayed in my heart.
This is why nature returns so often in my illustrations - not as a backdrop, but as the main character.
I create to remind. Of what was, of what is beautiful. Of the fact that the world - even the ordinary world - can still be full of magic.
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