Nathan DiStefano received an M.F.A. in painting and drawing from the University of the Arts in Philadelphia in 2004. DiStefano is a representational painter, but not a painter of appearances. His paintings are representational pictures of emotional situations. Most of DiStefano’s works are abstract environments. His recent works also incorporates figures and still lives, and this work focuses on the emotions created by the interaction between the subjects and their environments.
The experience of nature as process rather than picture depends on shifting the focus from landscape to environment. Landscape is a view of natural scenery or land, and it is a relatively detached viewpoint. The environment becomes a relationship between the subject and its surrounding external factors. DiStefano’s paintings demonstrate the tension between the desire to look without seeing and the desire for an unguarded interaction with our environment. This tension makes the viewer want to look deeper into the image.
DiStefano’s paintings capture a brief period of time from a few minutes to a few seconds within a single image, an abstract painter’s take on time-lapsed photography. The ability to witness the passage of time in a single image intensifies the conflict between the viewer’s two roles of detached observer and emotional participant in the scene.
Distefano’s paintings have been featured in magazines and exhibited in galleries in Bucks County, Philadelphia, New Jersey, and New York City. Distefano has murals hanging in The Doylestown YMCA, Doylestown McDonalds, and in Doylestown Hospitals Health and Wellness Center in Warrington, PA. His paintings are also displayed at Univest Bank, Philadelphia Management, Eastcom Verizon, Doylestown Hospital, Wealth Advisory in Doylestown, The Childrens Museum in New Hope, PA. Nathan’s work is in public and private collections nationally and internationally.
Media Coverage
Recently Nathan had an article about his paintings in Dtown Magazine, The Hearld and will be featued in Septembers issue of Suburban Life Magazine. Nathan’s painting Morning Jog was selected into Doylestown’s Bicentennial Jurried show and was awarded to hang in the Doylestown Courthouse. Univest Bank had commissioned Nathan to do an oil painting for the 2010 Univest Grand Prix Bike Race. An article about his work was featured in the Fall 2010 issue of Bucks Life Magazine. In the Spring of 2010, Nathan’s work was displayed as a part of the Byer’s Choice Exhibition at the Keenan Mercedes dealership. This exhibition was sponsored and selected by the Bucks County Chamber of Commerce. The fall of 2010 his work was in the Absolutely Abstract Exhibition at the Philadelphia Sketch Club and in the Phillips Mill Juried Competition in New Hope, PA. Nathans painting titled Doylestown is featured on the front cover of the 2011 Bucks Fever Magazine. In November 2011 Nathan did a performance piece at the Fox Chase Cancer Art Show in New Hope, PA and will again in November.