Self-Portrait #2 Print

Artist statement: I work with oil paints, mostly, and tend toward one style for portraits and another style for landscapes. I want my portraits to have an expressive style with a somewhat unfinished nature. If I get too realistic then I feel like I've painted something that would have been better produced by snapping a photo of the model. Whereas if the viewer sees individual brushstrokes, unexpected skin tones, and unrealistic areas such as incomplete edges or even flat areas where you would expect volume, then the painting can elicit emotions that a realistic snapshot cannot. For my landscapes, my style tends toward impressionism, still shying away from realism because "why not just take a photo?". I enjoy working quickly with this style and love the magic moment that happens when I step back from something I've been working on up close for a while and my heart starts to beat faster when I see that my abstract markings have turned into... an impression of a landscape.. Art! Artist Bio: Nathan Cain was born in Little Rock, Arkansas, USA, in 1978, and was raised nearby in Hot Springs National Park. He also lived for seven years in Fayetteville, Arkansas, among the gorgeous Ozark mountains. In 2007 he left Arkansas and served as one of Jehovah's Witnesses in Píllaro, Ecuador for a year with his wife. There he volunteered as a bible teacher and enjoyed the Andes with its volcanos and snowcapped mountains. This experienced had a major impact on him, causing him to more deeply realize that we humans are all the same inside. It also helped him to be more satisfied with a simple life. He now resides in Hot Springs, Arkansas. He and his wife enjoy the visits of deer in the backyard and beautiful sunsets, the paintings of God.