Nathan Aufrichtig Painter
Nathan Aufrichtig was born in Connecticut in 1975 and he now resides in Santa Fe. Nathan was exposed to a diverse array of art forms at an early age. Both of Nathan's parents were artists by trade which prompted him to pursue numerous creative endeavors of his own. Nathan spent the first decade of his career as a skilled sculptor and ceramicist before branching out into art restoration where he found immediate success. After spending over a decade perfecting his craft as an art conservator and restoring masterpieces by renowned artists such as Georgia O’Keeffe, Nathan narrowed his focus to making his own paintings. Since then, Nathan has split his time between running Pizza Centro and abstract painting. “As a teenager I would day dream about my future as a painter. I’ve come to realize that painting isn't just my occupation, it's my essence. My paintings are reflections of my innermost thoughts and passions. Painting is the means by which I’m able to transpose my daily visions onto canvas and express that which I couldn't possibly begin to articulate.... It’s the all consuming force that drives me out of bed and into the studio with inexplicable excitement.”
.Artist Statement:
When I close my eyes, the black void swells with color and then spontaneously erupts into dazzling abstract scenes which I then reproduce in my paintings. When I think about my next painting, at first the scenes are chaotic and unstable, but after a while, certain colors become more saturated than others, and various shapes take on specific positions. Eventually, an almost static scene materializes in my mind and I can contemplate and revise specific areas without altering the whole. What I’m essentially doing is allowing myself to settle into my subconscious and view its pre-existing forms. It’s like jumping off a high perch into a deep pool of water. At the deepest point you open your eyes only to be blinded by a plume of bubbles. As the water settles, the bubbly vail rises into the ether and sunlight streams through the still blue water giving way to clear and distinct forms. In this sense, painting is more about discovery than creation. Everything that can be depicted already exists in some form, it's just a matter of making sense of what’s already present. When I paint, I apply layer upon layer of colors and textures that coalesce into ripples of organic energy. The obscure nature of my images is such that each viewer will likely extract their own meaning and sentiments from my paintings. My highest hope as an artist is that my paintings will be a source of creative inspiration and positive emotion for the viewer.