Q + A: Nicholas Kain

How would you describe your art practice?

I am an abstract painter. My painting is intuitive and process based. I apply a loose array of different size strokes to the canvas, re-applying, layer upon layer of non-representational lines. It’s like a focused doodle.

What is your artistic background?

I finished my fine arts degree in 1998 in Hobart and have worked as an artist my whole life. I’m a music producer, musician, spoken word artist and sculptor, but painting is my greatest passion. For me painting is timeless and I am only bound by the borders of the canvas. I’m based just out of Mullumbimby. It’s a beautiful landscape and I appreciate it’s alternative community and the epic Pacific coastline.

What is your process and inspiration?

I like to paint on stretched Belgium linen, with acrylic paint pens, acrylic paint and brush, sometimes wiping lines back with material. My work is more like jazz improvisation, expressing movement, time and space through colour on a flat plain perspective. I’m creating a visual field on the canvas with the intention to evoke the viewer’s deeper subconscious and an experience of the senses. I find inspiration in everything and nothing, painting is my personal antidote to apathy.