Nathan Eastwood born into a working-class family, in Barrow-in-Furness, UK

Eastwood is based in Rochester, Kent, UK

‍Eastwood is a contemporary British artist best known for his obsessive, atmospheric, melancholic, meticulous glossy, photo-based, greyscale realistic depiction of ordinary people getting on with every-day activities, Eastwood calls ‘every-day realism’. 

Painted on primed gesso museum quality panels - since 2011 Eastwood dedicated himself to depicting, a highly detailed paintings of banal moments of everyday life which started with a small painting of the artist sitting at the bottom of his staircase at home. Since then, he has made dozens of paintings with the same loaded melancholic atmosphere, such as Dave 2013, Enter the Proletariats 2021, or News of the World 2024. The paintings imply a narrative arc, a conversation inherent, similar to a cutaway scene from a kitchen sink film or TV drama. The viewer is invited in to ask questions - what life stories do these people have. A psychological space between the painting and viewer is opened up for conversation.

Eastwood state’s, “Whether I was aware of it or not I have always been obsessed with class politics. This obsession is rooted in my own personal history and background. Working as a silver service waiter in an officer’s mess while studying at college, I became aware of class prejudice. I was awakened to class consciousness and I have always had an empathy for other people, and I see my paintings as a democratic approach to representing the ordinary person..”

His preferred medium is painting and his technique and process employs a photorealist painting methodology. Working within a gridding system, Eastwood can scrutinise his data and make a close approximation. 

His recognizable greyscale pallet of ivory black, Neutral Grey and titanium white is constraint, austere, and economical which reflects his minimalist approach to photo-based painted compositions. The process begins with using Photoshop - converting photographic data to greyscale. Eastwood says, “qualities of light, shadow, contrast, composition and atmosphere is the key to a strong motif”.  The photographic print is divided into sections which allows greater attention to looking and visual clarity, nonetheless not all of the information is painted but left as form/shape. Eastwood’s artistic and conceptual intention is to use the visual clarity of photo-realism in order to convey social meaning. The final cherry on the cake: is the gloss vanish – which gives the work an enamel like aesthetic qualities.  ‍

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Nathan Eastwood (b. 1972), graduated with a degree in Fine Art (1st) in 2005 from the Kent institute of Art and then completed an MA Fine Art Degree from Byam Shaw School of Art in 2009. Eastwood is a contemporary Social Realist Painter who was born in Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria and is currently based in Rochester, Kent, UK. 

Eastwood’s breakthrough showing of the painting ‘Nico’s café’ won him, the East London Painting prize (as the in-augural winner).  As part of the award, he went on to enjoy his first major solo exhibition at the Nunnery Gallery in 2014 and was awarded a generous financial sum of money. That same year in 2014 he designed, organised and curated a group show titled ‘Towards a New Socio-real Painting’ at the Transition Gallery, London. 

SOLO EXHIBITIONS: include ‘My England’, Sid Motion Gallery, London (2017), ‘Laptop and Chips’, SE9 Container Gallery, London (2016), ‘Work/Recreation/Freedom’, Nunnery Gallery, London, (2014), ‘Domestic Realism’, (CBP) Crypt St Marylebone Church, London (2014).

GROUP EXHIBITION: include The Weight of Being: Vulnerability, Resilience and Mental Health in Art, Two Temple Place, London, UK, (2026), Amici × Gertrude: Fall Apart | Come Together Amici Studio Hastings East Sussex UK, (2026), ‘Slow Painting’ (by CBP) The Plough Arts Centre, North Devon, UK (2024), ‘Assembly’ (by CBP) The Old Gym, Rye Creative Centre, Kent, UK, (2024), 'X - Contemporary British Painting' Newcastle Con-temporary Art, Newcastle, UK, (2023), ‘Vitalistic Fantasies’, Elysium Gallery, Swansea, UK (2022), 'Paradoxes' Contemporary British Painting, Quay Arts, Newport, Isle of Wight, (2022), ‘Yes/No: 32 Painters’ (virtual open studio) (2020), ‘Me, Myself and I’, Collyer Bristow Gallery, London, UK, (2020), ‘Contemporary British Painting’, Norwich Cathedral, UK (2019), ‘Made in Britain: 82 Painters of the 21st Century, the National Museum in Gdansk, Poland’ (2019) … 

Permanent Collections: Anita Zabludowicz, London / Goldhill Family, London / The Priseman-Sea Brook Collection / Yale Centre of British Art / Swindon Museum and Art Gallery

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