Nick Ouwehand paints on different materials such as canvas, wood, cardboard and other found surfaces. The materiality of the surface is important, and occasionally takes on a central role in his work. Thematically, he deals with the loss of contact with nature, particularly animals. These paintings display the perverse attempts at regaining contact with animals whilst they return in dream states as a result of a lack of presence in waking lives. He draws inspiration from the practice of taxidermy, examining the way practitioners touch and manipulate animals in a manner that crosses a distinct boundary. To him, this contact is a vulgar form of intimacy, it exists only in the human perception, as the subject is long dead.

In his recent work, Ouwehand reflects on the contemporary relationship towards nature and how this affects the human condition. Society adores nature and its creatures in a certain way and wants to keep them close, yet destroying it on an unprecedented scale. His paintings question what it is we truly love when we look at an animal, the living being or the image we have created of it. By dissolving the boundaries between dream and reality, Ouwehand’s work suggests a future where the "dream" may be the only place left to encounter the wild.