Some of the most popular videos that have helped his website receive an astonishing 1.5 million hits include an image of controversial pop star Lady Gaga made out of sugar and a picture of Britain’s Got Talent supremo Simon Cowell made from Marmite and toast.
Other pictures include Gordon Brown in Marmite, KFC’s iconic Colonel Sanders in tomato ketchup and pop star Pink in chocolate syrup.
Nathan, who is in his first year at the University of Wales Institute, Cardiff (Uwic) has always had a passion for art but only decided to experiment with food in the past few years.
He said: “It’s a really fun thing to do and really expressive. I have been interested in art since I was about 12 years old, but the food ideas were only for fun at first. My parents were always telling me not to play with my food, so I decided to go ahead and play with it. It’s fun to do and I’m never bored.”
He has now been approached by Marmite to front its “love it” campaign, and recently re-created guerrilla artist Bansky’s famous Maid in London design on 160 loaves of bread, using six jars of Marmite, in Ebbw Vale town centre for an advert.
He was inspired to first use the spread for the Simon Cowell picture after hearing an interviewer describing the controversial judge as someone “you either love or hate” – the product’s slogan.
Nathan said: “Their PR agency contacted me after seeing the video I made of the Marmite portraits. I am now supporting the love it campaign in the advert. The advert was really fun to do as it was in the middle of town so it was a big attraction and lots of people were commenting on my work. Quite a lot of people said they had trouble just spreading Marmite onto their toast, let alone make a portrait out of it.”
Talking about the Katherine Jenkins picture, which he made with the chocolate and nut spread, he added: “I decided to make it out of Nutella because she’s just so sweet. I used card this time, just to test it out, which was much easier than using the toast.”
He is now helping out at his former primary school, teaching some of the children how to draw and how to be creative with their art.
He said: “I had a good time teaching at my old school. I signed loads of signatures.”
But despite most people being impressed by his work, Nathan says he is used to the odd negative comment.
“People sometimes complain that I am wasting food, but it always gets eaten somehow. The bread we used for the Marmite advert was given to a horse farm for them to eat. But people generally like what I do and I get a lot of positive feedback, which is good,” he said.
Nathan’s work has featured on Blue Peter, where he helped presenters create portraits using food such as bread and ketchup and earned himself a Blue Peter badge.
He now commissions drawings on his website for people who want portraits of their photographs or their favourite celebrities.
Other drawings which feature on his website include tributes to celebrities such as Michael Jackson, Heath Ledger and Marilyn Monroe.
He has also made a video of himself answering questions people post on his website about his work.
He says he has a few ideas about taking his work further and promises to put new videos up on YouTube, but wants to keep it a surprise.
He films and edits the videos to speed up the painting process – which usually takes a few hours – into a few minutes.
Nathan said: “I thought it would be interesting to record myself drawing and put it up online. I did not expect to get 1.5 millions hits, or anything like that. I’m very grateful and it’s just amazing.”
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