How Art Star Nathalie Perler Turned Her Art into a Space for Healing and Transformation
We’re excited to kick off a new series of interviews with our Art Star of the Month program, honouring exceptional talent across various creative fields.
Through this initiative, we aim to spotlight artists making an impact, offering them a global platform to share their work and connect with a community of creators. The Art Star of the Month program is designed to recognise the incredible diversity and innovation in the arts, providing a space for growth, recognition, and meaningful connections.
For this month’s Art Star of the Month at the Arts to Hearts Project, we had the chance to sit down with Nathalie Perler, a Swiss painter whose life and work beautifully reflect a journey of healing, transformation, and profound inner truth. In this interview, Nathalie opens up about leaving behind a career in finance to follow her true calling—one that took her from the jungles of South America to the quiet sanctuary of her Montreux studio.
She shares how a life-altering near-death experience, time with the Kogi people, and her training in traditional Chinese medicine shaped her path as both an artist and healer. Her work blends realism and abstraction, inviting viewers into emotional sanctuaries filled with energy, beauty, and soul.
Through her story, we learn what creating from a place of survival, intuition, and emotional honesty truly means. Nathalie reminds us that art can be more than visual—a space for connection, healing, and rediscovery.
Born in Lausanne in 1968, Nathalie Perler is a painter based in Montreux. Drawn to art from an early age, she initially dreamed of attending the School of Fine Arts. Life, however, took her along another path, leading her first through a commercial career and work in the financial sector of a private bank in Zurich. At 24, a sabbatical year took her to South America, to Colombia. What was meant to be a simple break became a turning point when she experienced a near-death experience (NDE) in the Caribbean. This transformative moment led her to extend her stay for five years, during which she helped develop an eco-lodge in the rainforest and immersed herself in the ancestral wisdom of local cultures, particularly the Kogi people. She was surrounded by nature and discovered the importance of inner reconnection and self-healing.
Back in Switzerland, Nathalie continued her quest through various training courses: traditional Chinese medicine, acupuncture, energy harmonisation, and painting by feeling. In 1999, she discovered oil painting, which led her to open a studio in 2003 where she teaches painting by feeling while practising as a therapist. Faced with Ménière’s syndrome, Nathalie is forced to reconsider her career choices. Ultimately, this ordeal becomes an opportunity to devote herself to her passion for painting. A training at an art school allows her to perfect her technique and develop her unique style.
Recognised for her work in abstract realism, Nathalie creates vibrant and transformative pieces that bridge the gap between reality and imagination. Her art, a seamless fusion of realism and abstraction, draws deeply on feelings and translates the emotions and energies captured throughout her career. Oil painting has become her preferred medium, which she enriches with various techniques to transform her canvases into true visual sanctuaries. Each work offers a unique emotional experience, inviting the viewer to contemplate the world not as it is, but as it could be: vibrant with beauty, grace, and hope.
Her work encourages everyone to discover their inner strength and view their journey optimistically. Looking ahead, Nathalie aspires to create works that offer comfort and encouragement and inspire collectors worldwide. Her future work will continue to serve as a beacon of light and positivity, reminding all who encounter it that there is always a path to joy and that magic remains within reach.
1. Your journey from finance to painting is fascinating—how did your sabbatical in South America and your near-death experience shape the artist you are today?
In 1992, I left my job in finance and set off to South America in search of something more profound. I travelled through Colombia, spending time with the Kogi people—guardians of ancestral wisdom—and later sailed in the Caribbean, eventually reaching the island of Providencia. I was on a soul quest, driven by an intense need to understand life beyond the material world. That journey changed everything. I met shamans, immersed myself in indigenous life, and experienced a profound connection to nature and spirit.
But the actual turning point came with a near-death experience: I fell from a cliff on the island and was forced to stay there for four months, unable to leave. Untouched by tourism, Providencia became a place of deep healing and transformation. In that sacred stillness, I realised I had been living a life that wasn’t mine—a path shaped by my father’s expectations. I chose to walk away from that and follow my true calling. Living with the Kogi, I dreamt of building an eco-village to support education and environmental awareness.
Those five years in the jungle taught me more than all the years in a structured, analytical world. I understood that real life pulses with magic and intuition—something I now strive to express through my art. My painting today blends freedom and vibrancy, rooted in indigenous people’s wisdom and the present moment’s aliveness. I believe in an art that connects us to what’s real, beyond the noise of modern life, and awakens our sense of wonder.
Art, to me, is a silent yet powerful form of healing. It allows transformation to occur gently, without words — just through presence, feeling, and vibration.
Nathalie Perler
2. You blend realism with abstraction in your work. How does this balance reflect your journey and understanding of the inner self?
My art mirrors my inner landscape — a space where form and formlessness meet. The realism in my work speaks to the part of me that observes, remembers, and honours the visible world and the stories it carries. On the other hand, the abstract is the breath of the unseen — it gives shape to the ineffable, intuitive, and emotional layers that words often fail to express. Coming from a background in finance, I was once immersed in structure, control, and external expectations.
But through my transformative journey — especially my time with the Kogi people and my healing on the island of Providencia — I reconnected with the fluidity of life, the mystery, the silence beneath appearances. This duality lives in my work: the known and the unknown, the seen and the felt. Blending realism and abstraction allows me to honour both hemispheres of the self — the grounded and the visionary. It reflects my belief that the soul lives in the in-between spaces, and that art is a bridge between what we understand and what we are still discovering about ourselves.
3. How does your training in traditional Chinese medicine and energy harmonisation influence your creative process and the energy in your paintings?
My background in Traditional Chinese Medicine has profoundly shaped how I perceive energy, both in life and art. In Chinese philosophy, everything is energy — Qi — in constant movement and transformation. Painting is a way of harmonising these energies: those that move through me, nature, and the invisible threads that connect all living things. When I paint, I don’t just think about form or colour.
I tune into vibration, flow, and resonance, just as I would when treating a patient. I ask myself: Where is the stagnation? Where is the life force calling to move? This becomes a dance on the canvas — balancing yin and yang, stillness and movement, intention and surrender. The creative process becomes a form of energetic healing, not only for myself, but often for those who connect with the work. Every brushstroke can carry a frequency, and I aim to infuse each piece with a sense of alignment, vitality, and inner calm.
4. Your art has a powerful healing quality. What do you hope viewers take away from your work when they experience it?
My artistic approach is deeply rooted in my background as an energy healer for over 27 years. Each painting begins with a clear intention — a kind of energetic alignment. I believe everything is vibration, and that art, when created with presence and soul, carries a frequency that can truly be felt. It’s not just colour on canvas; it’s energy made visible. Through my work, I hope to awaken something essential and sleeping within the viewer — a reconnection to their creative life force, inner harmony, and sense of wonder. Many people have shared that my paintings are not just visual pieces, but living companions on their journey.
They describe them as vibrant presences supporting, soothing, or guiding them. This is especially true for my soul portraits, where I intuitively capture the unique essence of a person. These artworks help them reconnect with who they truly are, beyond the noise and roles — they act as mirrors, keys, or doorways to their expansion. My background in Traditional Chinese Medicine and energetic therapies naturally flows into my creative process — colours, shapes, and symbols are chosen for their aesthetic value and energetic impact. An image, a star, a particular hue — each element is selected with care to evoke healing, resonance, and beauty. Art, to me, is a silent yet powerful form of healing. It allows transformation to occur gently, without words, through presence, feeling, and vibration.
My art is a mirror of my inner landscape — a space where form and formlessness meet.
Nathalie Perler
5. Your paintings are described as “visual sanctuaries.” What role does your work play in people’s emotional and spiritual journeys?
I see my paintings as spaces of refuge—gentle sanctuaries where the soul can breathe and reconnect. I aim to awaken a sense of harmony, sacred presence, and invisible beauty in those who experience my art. Through colours, textures, and symbols, I try to recreate the emotional essence of places that have profoundly marked me, especially the tropical forest, which embodies protection, mystery, and life’s profound intelligence. I believe beauty is medicine in a world that prioritises the useful over the beautiful. It reminds us of what we truly are: beings of connection, rhythm, and wonder. I intend each painting to offer a place to feel nourished and held, like stepping into a sacred grove where silence speaks and something greater can be felt.
6. Congratulations on being featured as Art Star by The Arts to Hearts Project! How do you think opportunities like this help elevate your career and open new doors for your creative journey?
Thank you so much! Being featured as an Art Star by The Arts to Hearts Project is a true honour and a beautiful encouragement on my path. Opportunities like this act like gentle winds beneath my creative wings—they bring visibility, of course, but more deeply, they affirm that my artistic voice resonates beyond the walls of my studio.
This kind of recognition bridges the intimate world of creation and the broader world of connection. It opens doors to new audiences, collectors, and collaborations and nurtures a sense of belonging in the global artistic community. For someone like me, who creates from a space of sensitivity and inner exploration, being seen in this way is empowering and humbling. It fuels my desire to share beauty, truth, and healing through art.
Nathalie Perler’s artwork is a powerful blend of emotion, energy, and inner transformation. Rooted in her experiences—from a near-death encounter in the Caribbean to years spent learning from Indigenous wisdom and energy healing—her art goes beyond aesthetics and becomes a sanctuary for the soul. Her paintings offer more than beauty; they serve as quiet spaces for reflection, healing, and reconnection.
Through her journey, we learn that creativity can be an act of survival, spiritual expression, and a bridge between the seen and the unseen worlds. Nathalie shows us that when we create from a place of truth and inner listening, art has the power to heal—not just ourselves, but those who experience it too.
To learn more about Nathalie, click the following links to visit her profile.
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