Nate Lundgren Fine Art

Artist | Nate Lundgren | Spokane, WA

The Artist

Hi, I’m Nate, my art is a reflection of my love for the Pacific Northwest bioregion, which I tend to view through the lens of both an ecologist and a mountaineer. I have deep roots in the Northwest and I currently reside in Spokane, Washington with my family. Having moved from Bellingham across the state (my studio name is an ode to this region), I still take much of my inspiration from the glaciated peaks and old-growth forests of the North Cascades. As a child, I was an enthusiastic scientist and naturalist and I later pursued these interests at Western Washington University, where I earned a BS and a MS in Environmental Science. Sketching flora and fauna has always been a hobby for me since childhood, but it wasn’t until some downtime between jobs that I began to seriously study art and teach myself more about the subject. Picking up a copy of the classic “Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain” by Betty Edwards, I put much effort into building a solid foundation in the principles of drawing that would later serve me well.

Fast forward several years. I keep creating art after I put my daughter to bed every night. People ask if my works are for sale. I start an Instagram account even though I tend to loathe social media. I join a local art gallery in Spokane and sell both originals and prints. I partner with galleries in the Northwest to sell wholesale prints. I start this website to see just how far I can take art as a side job. So far, so good.

The Art

Although I have learned much about color and expanded into watercolor painting, my preferred mediums are still monochrome. Ink, graphite, and charcoal are my main tools and give me an opportunity to explore value contrast and composition in a way that seems less distracting than if I am using color. You will see that I am also a sucker for nature’s details. I definitely tend toward realism. If it’s a Sitka spruce I’m drawing, it needs to look like a Sitka spruce and not some other conifer. I do take artistic license of course, but I try and seek out scenes that already possess good elements of composition. Most of my finished pieces are inspired by personal reference photos and field sketches taken during mountaineering and backpacking trips in remote areas. In particular, I am drawn to old-growth conifers and alpine terrain. In my mind, my artistic pursuit allows me a fuller appreciation of what I am seeing when I step out into the natural world.