Nathan Paddison, an Australian contemporary artist, was born in 1983. Paddison’s paintings are emotional, primal, and vivid of a difficult past. Expressionistic discourse is formed by gestural signs and indistinct language in his paintings. Paddison’s bold line and palette approach complement the physicality and urgency with which he works. The artist’s impatience and forceful language are the result of compulsion rather than task.
He works with a variety of mediums, including acrylics, enamel, fabric, newspaper, marker, and pastels. Working in a single medium, he says, limits his artistic process. Each concept takes on its own own personality.

“I paint anything in my life from animals and childhood icons that I love to people from my past and present. I always use a lens of distortion to try and show their inner personality rather than the more superficial, outside appearance. I am especially pre-occupied artistically with the struggle of addiction.”

Working with acrylic, spray paint, charcoal, and oil stick, the painter’s street art style, both naïve and emotional, recalls the Art Brut movement, along with Paddison’s greatest artistic loves — Basquiat, Picasso and Twombly. The artist paints with explosive energy and abandon, approaching every canvas with a sense of urgency and physicality as if something vital inside of the artist is craving expression without fear or restraint. The result is raw, original, gestural, and simplistic in nature. His style is marked by a flat rendering of childlike imagery; familiar figures that one might come across in a children’s book or a young adult adventure novel; menacing cats with large eyes, sharp-toothed Tyrannosaurus rex dinosaurs, and caricatures of kings and queens from a deck of playing cards.

“Art and creativity are at the core of my newfound self – to find this passion in a field of endless possibilities is like winning the lotto over and over again. I love the fearlessness and freedom in the work.”

Nathan Paddison has exhibited all over Australia, Europe and Asia in numerous solo and group shows. His most recent awards include The Kilgour Prize 2021 Art Gallery of Newcastle and The Lester Prize Art Gallery of Western Australia 2021.