Meet the Artist: Nathaniel Breedlove

Painting Thomas Watson Jr.

Nate goes straight to the human form.

That's where his work lives — in the complexity of the body, the weight of a posture, the way a figure can carry an entire emotional world without saying a word. Pencil, charcoal, oil paint. He'll tell you his artistic identity is rooted in the human experience.

It's a simple sentence. It's also the whole thing.

Because most of what he's after can't be looked up. The way someone holds themselves when they're tired. The set of a shoulder that means something is being carried. You don't get that from a reference photo. You get it from being around people, in motion, long enough to notice.

So he goes and does that.

Climbing. Hiking. Rappelling. Reading. Whatever's next… usually outside, usually with his family somewhere in it. He's not sitting still and studying the human experience from a distance.

He's out having one.

There's a version of an artist who observes. Nate's the other kind.

There's something else worth saying about Nate.

A while back, he told us his soul needed to be creative again. He hadn't drawn in a stretch. This project brought him back to it

He's still here.

Ask him what he wants people to walk away with and he doesn't say understanding. He doesn't say appreciation.

He says he wants them to ask questions about the human experience.

Not answers. Questions.

That's a harder thing to make. It means the portrait can't hand you a verdict on the person in it — it has to leave enough room that you go looking for one yourself.

Which is a fitting instinct for this subject in particular.

As for what drew him to Thomas Watson Jr. — you'll have to come see it…

What This Is All About

Nate is one of 18 local artists creating work for:

Influencers Over Time — Part 3: Builders + Titans

This five-part exhibition is inspired by TIME Magazine's 100 most influential people of the 20th century — exploring the people whose ideas, ambition, and decisions shaped the world we live in today.

🗓️ October 23–25
📍 The Studio — 4750 W 800 N, West Point, Utah
🎟️ Admission is free — reserve your spot