Erin Hanson is an oil landscape painter and has been an accomplished painter since she was a child. She began getting commissioned by the time she was 10 and by age 12 was employed after school by a mural studio and only two years later she went to Otis College of Art, on a high school scholarship, where she mastered figure drawing. She graduated high school at 16 and then went to UC Berkeley where she got a degree in Bioengineering.
She is a very adventurous artist who gained inspiration for her paintings by rock climbing in Nevada and Utah, backpacking and hiking through the wilderness etc. She is credited with the creation of "Open-Impressionism" a minimalist technique where she uses impasto paint strokes without layering.
On her website she also includes images of her paintings in peoples houses which I think is really interesting. It also puts into perspective their size - a lot of them are smaller than you think
Sunset Cypress
2022
OIL ON LINEN by erin hanson
16 x 20 in
Here is an example of one of the paintings that reminds me of the style I would like to use. I love that the underpainting is visible throughout the piece and that she uses texture and somewhat unnatural colors to depict the landscape. Despite this though, she captures the light on this coast so well which I would love to learn how to do.
Blooms and Coast
2021
OIL ON LINEN by erin hanson
9 x 12 in
I really like this one because of the mountains and the way she was able to capture the differing distances and atmospheric perspective with a couple of strokes of paint. It seems like for the most part there is only one color in every stroke but if I were to do this style I would probably have it so multiple colors could be seen.
Desert Boulder
2021
OIL ON CANVAS by erin hanson
24 x 36 in
$16,400
This one reminds me a lot more of the fauvist landscapes I looked at becuase of the angle of the trees and how they are yellow as opposed to green. The foreground on this one is super interesting though and the background between the trees is really nicely done. It gives a lot of depth to her work (something I need to work on)
I definitely want to keep these images in mind and refer back to them while choosing and working on my next piece. I definitely want to do a more open concept landscape with more room for interpretation. I also want to expand my color scheme to this more sunset -blues, pinks, reds, oranges- scheme. Maybe I'll also try working with a pallet knife and I'm definitely going to do a bright base coat for the painting.
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