Today we’d like to introduce you to Nathaniel Mather.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I grew up in the Los Angeles area and started playing the drums at age 7. My dream was to become a professional musician. In High school, I started playing gigs and doing studio work and for the next ten years worked at my craft. During that time I became involved with my local church and realized that my current lifestyle was unhealthy for me and I put aside my music and started to draw and paint, at age 26 I enrolled at Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, CA and studied painting and Illustration. I was honored to have my first one-person show a few years later and left school to paint full time. During that time I was also growing in my Christian faith and while that was awesome it did present some conflict within me. I mistakenly thought that my paintings needed to reflect only joy and happiness, while in reality, my work was sometimes darker, expressing my current daily struggles and when I saw that in my paintings I was scared. I didn’t want my work to look like a Hallmark Card but also not wanting to be depicting the end of the world. Somewhere in the middle would be nice. I was so confused and frustrated I stopped painting for a few years.
To support my new wife and future family, I started a career in the golf business. I had taken up golf at age 28 and thought it would be fun to work in that industry.
My first job was with a Golf Management Company in Los Angeles. The company had a training program and after 8 months I was the General Manager at a Golf Club in San Diego.
That was the start of a 30 year career in golf.
About 5 years into my new job path I started to paint again.
I had come to the conclusion that God wanted me to paint what was in my heart. That was His gift to me. What I expressed through painting was sometimes joyful and sometimes not, it didn’t really matter to Him. The gift was to express who I was, and who He had made me to be. That was so freeing and painting became fun again.
I had two careers, Art and Golf.
Now, three daughters and 5 grandkids later I am fully immersed in my artwork..
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Probably the typical struggles:
* Finding my voice in my painting, style, content and medium
* Financial pressures
* Disappointments in the art business world
* Working in two completely different business paths
* Transitioning from working in the sport and hospitality arena and then putting on my creative hat to paint
* Sometimes not finding acceptance in the art world as a Christian and not finding acceptance as an artist in the Christian world
* Trusting God along the way
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
My painting materials include acrylic paint, oil pastel, paper and pen on canvas or paper. My work is colorful and whimsical, I have original artwork in many Children’s Hospitals throughout the USA and enjoy hearing from parents about their experiences with their children and how my work gave them hope, peace and comfort during their hospital stay. What’s better than that !!
I have been blessed with great galleries and art publishers that carry my work.
Pricing:
- Small originals $1,200
- Medium originals $ 2,600
- Large originals $ 3,500 and up
Contact Info:
- Email: nathanielmatherart@gmail.com
- Website: nathanielmather.com
- Instagram: nathaniel_mather
- Facebook: nathaniel mather
- Etsy: NathanielMatherart
