In I love from memory, Nate Orton presents a new body of paintings, woodburns, and books rooted in close observation and the quiet persistence of memory. Working from a pocket sketchbook, Orton captures fleeting scenes from daily life… a cloud over a parking lot, light across a stand of trees, moments that might otherwise go unnoticed but continue to linger long after they pass.
He returns to these scenes repeatedly, both in person and in memory, redrawing and refining them over time. Through this process, compositions shift and simplify, distilling each image to its most essential forms, colors, and symbols. What begins as observation gradually becomes something more reflective and interior.
In the studio, these drawings evolve into casein tempera paintings, built through layered applications of a fast-drying, traditional medium. The resulting works move beyond documentation, becoming meditations on memory, time, and place.
Orton’s practice began in North Central Idaho, where he made work along creeks, rivers, and canyons. Now based in Milwaukie, Oregon, he continues to walk and draw regularly, finding a quiet kind of strangeness and beauty in the suburban landscape around him.
Editor’s note: This event is a community submission.
