Behind the Brush

Painted on PTO

Hi, I'm Nathan. I have a day job.

I studied finance at Ohio State and built a career in numbers. I analyzed large construction projects, built data dashboards for COVID response, police departments, and state education agencies, and now I manage finances at a fintech company in Columbus.

I also used every vacation day I've ever had. Over the years I've been to Mexico, Canada, Italy, Vietnam, Thailand, Japan, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Argentina, and Egypt. I ate at taco stands in Oaxaca and ramen counters in Tokyo, and I took a lot of photos.

Nathan under an umbrella in the rain, a five-storied wooden pagoda and autumn maples behind him
Kyoto, Japan. Rainy day, well-spent PTO.

I never fit the picture of an "artist." I don't have the tattoos or the dramatic story about quitting it all. I'm part of the bigger, quieter group: people with a 9-to-5 who know that's not the whole story. So I taught myself to code, won a few hackathons, built this website from scratch, and started turning my travel photos into watercolor prints.

It began with magnets and coasters I gave to friends and family. They kept asking for more, so I went bigger, to canvas.

Next, I want to pick up a real brush. My goal is to turn these prints into original paintings in a style that's all my own. Every print you buy helps me see more of the world, get better at my craft (painting, and the coding behind this site), and maybe inspire a few more people with day jobs to make something of their own.

Welcome to The Painted Passport

The Painted Passport is for anyone who's ever planned a trip on their lunch break.

From the trip to your wall

Moraine Lake, Banff National Park

Nathan standing on the rocks above Moraine Lake, turquoise water and snowy peaks behind him
01I was here.
Nathan's original photo of Moraine Lake with a chipmunk on the rocks in the foreground
02I took this.
The finished watercolor-style canvas of Moraine Lake, made from that photo
03It became this.

See the Banff canvas

The journey so far

A finance major's long way around to art

  1. Ohio State

    BS in Finance.

  2. 2019

    Financial analyst on large-scale construction projects.

  3. 2023

    Data analytics for COVID response, police departments, and state Departments of Education.

  4. 2024

    Joins a Columbus fintech company and wins internal hackathons.

    Nathan smiling with a coffee in the stands at a tech conference
    Conference lanyard on. PTO request pending.
  5. 2025

    Teaches himself web development (The Odin Project) and makes the first magnets and coasters as gifts.

    Watercolor-style magnets of Positano, Luxor and Ushuaia, and coasters of Banff, Huacachina and Bangkok
    Where it started
  6. 2026

    The Painted Passport launches on canvas.

    A Mount Fuji canvas hanging above a sofa, an orange cat sitting on the coffee table
    First canvas up. The cat has notes.
  7. Now

    Still at the desk on weekdays, still painting on PTO.

  8. Next stop

    More countries, original hand-painted work, and someday, trading the day job for the road full-time. Where should I go next?

Where I've been

The real map, on my real wall

Nathan's push-pin world map with orange pins across the Americas, Europe, Egypt and Asia
Past adventures. Yet to explore.

What we stand for

Craftsmanship

Every canvas is held to a single standard: heavyweight cotton, properly stretched, finished by hand. Quality is not something we add at the end — it is where we begin.

Authenticity

Every piece is grounded in a real destination. We do not invent places or flatter them beyond recognition. The work starts where the world already is.

Inspiration

Art should do more than fill a wall. Our work is made to return you to a place you love, and to point you toward the one you have not seen yet.

Continuous improvement

We treat each collection as a draft of the next. Materials, process, and customer feedback are reviewed constantly, because standing still is how good work goes stale.

Community impact

We commit five percent of profits to serving vulnerable communities in the places that inspire our work — from the first dollar this shop earns.

Sustainability

We print on demand. Nothing is produced before it is wanted, which means no surplus inventory, no overproduction, and no unsold stock sent to landfill.

Customer care

How we treat people is part of the product. Clear communication, quick answers, and a fair resolution whenever something goes wrong.

Right now, The Painted Passport runs on weekends and vacation days. The goal is to make it the whole job: more trips, more places painted, and more good done in the places that inspire the work. Every print that ends up on a wall gets us a step closer.

Want to help build it? Start here

Browse the archive Suggest my next stop