Kaitain

Techniques

My pictures are digital paintings; whilst they have the appearance of paint, they are not. I use computer programs that allow me to simulate brushstrokes, but it remains an extremely labour-intensive.

Whether the paint is real or is simulated, brushstrokes represent decisions; my work makes no attempt to hide the hand of the artist. A painting is an accumulation of the creator’s image-making choices, and as such, this is in no way an automated process.

My use of digital paint creates an illusion that hides the true nature of the images: these are collages.

Each one of my pictures is pulled together from a collection of source imagery, even a single face is often a composite of several parts. Collage is a technique at which computers truly excel. Their ability to collate, alter, distort and assimilate disparate images together has few equals in the physical domain.

I Giclée print the finished images to get a dense and very real appearance. Most people can't tell it's not paint until they are a few inches away from the surface.

About me

I am a Bermudian living in Oxford in the UK with my wife Bry, an art history student, and two children. After doing an art foundation at Oxford Brookes University I went on to do a BA Hons degree in Design & Art Direction at Manchester Met University.

In the years since I have been a film editor, animator, web designer, UI/UX designer, and 3D designer. In the evenings I make music with a sampler, play the guitar poorly and the flute even worse. The name Kaitain came from a need for a DJ name years ago, and it stuck. It rhymes with high train.