...Promises to be good.  This event is my favorite art show of the year with a wonderful afternoon of sharing creativity and building relationships with dear friends.  Please consider attending.

paulryker.com

nathanhuff.com

Google Map to Huff Ranch

MC/VISA/DSCV/AMEX

It has been far to long since I have updated this site.  Part of the reason I have postponed adding new work has been the fact that I have been exploring a lot of new ideas and structures. 

I began attending Cal State Long Beach last fall in pursuit of my MFA in painting degree.  What a stimulating experience it has been!  I am so enjoying the dialogues and challenges that I am placed in on a daily basis and excited to see how it will continue to inform my work.  I continue to work in the other series as well and will be updating as future shows and activities come up.

Thank You for your support and love.  I so enjoy sharing life with you all!

Here are a few of my thoughts on my recent body of work entitled "Liminal states"

Artist Statement:  Nathan Huff

“ I forgot that every aspect of the common day makes or unmakes character.”

Oscar Wilde

I am fascinated by the passage of time; intrigued by the ways that our daily actions and often mundane decisions influence our futures.  Public vs. Private and Intimate vs. Corporate are the contexts that I find my artwork seeking to engage.  Through my painting practice I ask the question, “How are individual’s lives constructed as they navigate these polar experiences?”

The images I create depict individuals as they navigate public spaces. Often crossing through a threshold or limimal space, I seek to bring acknowledgment to the complex nature of our daily activities.  I am intrigued by multiplicity, realizing that there are numerous options and possible paths that one travels on.   The figures in my paintings move through contemporary constructed reality, yet there are ruptures that take place in the paint application.

Drawing on traditions of narration and abstract painting, I desire to engage contemporary painting dialogues by referencing these methodologies.  Elements of figuration and abstraction oscillate through the painted forms on my canvases.  Exploration of space, motion, and time enhance these dialogues of multiplicity.  Viewers are invited into the painted scenes through various passageways.  Some are blocked, others dissolve, but the coalescing of a fractured experience is my goal.  It is not often why or how a decision is being made but the fact that brick by brick, walls are constructed in the architecture of our lives.

Art show in Long Beach.

March 10 - April 30, 2008

Artist Reception:  Sat. March 29th.  6-8pm

Portfolio Coffeehouse

2300 E. 4th St. (At Junipero)

Long Beach, CA 90814

562-434-2486

A unique combination of wax encaustic figurative paintings and also new work from the "Growth Series"

Hope you can make it!

Ok, I've started on a new project for my July 22nd art show on the Huff Property. My original intent was to be sharing landscapes and sketches from this last adventure through Tunisia and London. While there will be a few represented, I am most inspired by the beautiful people that I have come across. I was able to paint many of their faces while in Tunisia, and language barriers aside (my Arabic is horrible) made deep connections with my sitters.

I've decided to try to catalogue as many faces of people that I know as I can to share at the show. All will be small 5"x5." I've asked people to take a photo of themselves, just head and shoulders and send it to me at nathanjhuff@gmail.com. Don't worry if it is not a glamour shot...It could be crazy, sad, fun, whatever...I'm looking for honesty.

It is such a unique collaboration to see how individuals perceive themselves and then to see how it is reinterpreted in my paintings! Well, at least I think so...we'll see if I have any friends left at the end of this. :)

So there you have it. Wanna send me your mug shot??? I'd be most appreciative. I do hope you'll come and check out the exhibition as well.

Nathan

It seems as though every year I am blessed with a new opportunity to travel.
This Summer is no exception I'll be leaving on Tuesday for a couple week trip to Tunisia. My "Encaustic" paintings will be masquerading as 'stow aways' in my suitcase for a gallery show in Tunis. Pray that they arrive unbroken, unmelted, and generally unharmed. :) I'll also be participating in the creation of a mural for a local orphanage in Tunisia.

Next, I'm off to my usual Museum haunting and study of master paintings. This time London is the lucky destination for an overly eager art student...arriving every morning at the museum doors and leaving at close. I am especially excited about spending some time with William Turner (british landscape painter). Be returning July 7th to prepare for July 22nd exhibition of the work created overseas.

I'll be available by email until then.

Best.
Nathan

You are invited to a new show opening this saturday. Please join me as I present my new paintings from the "Growth Series" at the Artist's Space in Del Mar just south of the San Diego Fairgrounds. We will have an opening on April 21st from 4 to 7pm.

Directions to the show! From the I-5, head west toward Jimmy Durante Blvd. Turn south (left) and pass the San Diego Fairgrounds. Within a mile, on the west side, 2010 Jimmy Durante. Close to the "Artist Space" is Axis Martini Lounge, and is within a complex of white buildings. I look forward to seeing you!

Facing Spring will be a spring sensorial experience at my good friend Alicia Sotherland’s lovely garden and home. Come prepared to enjoy her pastel portraits, and new wax encaustic paintings by myself. Conversation, food, flowers, and fellowship to be had.

March 31,2007 2-7pm.

1144 E. 5th Ave. Escondido, CA 92025

The Artist Space will be a 3 month long exhibition featuring my expanded “Growth Series” alongside 5 other artist’s work, including painting buddy Paul Ryker. The Artist Reception will be

April 21, 2007 3-7pm.

South Fair: 2010 Jimmy Durante Blvd. Del Mar, CA.

Glimpses of Africa and London 2007 is scheduled for this July. I have a wonderful opportunity to travel to Tunisia and London for study this June, and plan to return with new paintings and stories. I hope you’ll plan to join me for the second annual art show on the Huff property.

July 22, 2007 3 - 7 pm.

Peoples faces are imbued with such emotion and cumulative experiences. I could paint them endlessly. Here is an image of my sister from last summer.
Also, for some beautiful portrait work in Pastel check out www.aliciasotherland.com.

What a challenge to continue to create in the midst of busy schedules. I'm always thrilled when I can get time in the studio. Here is a new image that is in process....

This is a recent drawing created for a client.