Book Review: Open Impressionism Vol. II / Erin Hanson
"The ink on the printed page has been magically transformed into paint and brush marks which retain the expressive energy of the original paintings"
It arrived with a great sense of occasion. A doorbell chimed, humorous banter with the delivery man, large box smothered in foreign postmarks and documentation of another country. Two hands were needed to manoeuvre its heavy weight through the house and land it on the kitchen table.
'What's that?' asked my young niece after I called her over to share the excitement of the unboxing.
'This has come all the way from America' I explained '..and features an artist I'm sure you're going to like'
There followed 'oohs' and 'aahs' as a large book emerged from the box, its cover ablaze with fiery oranges, hot pinks, warm blues and mellow greens - Aspen Trail (2015). We had arrived in Erin Hanson's world, of Utah, Nevada, Arizona and California, places of her homeland and places explored. Hanson developed a passion for these landscapes through her participation in various outdoor pursuits. They are her muse, driving her to find ways of expressing their majestic beauty through the medium of paint. At some point in the journey, she discovered how to paint with the light of stained glass.
The young Erin Hanson had already realised how paint could convey beauty, after observing that a painting of irises by Van Gogh, was more beautiful than the real thing growing in her mother's garden. Hanson has since established herself as a contemporary landscape artist who has pushed the folds of impressionism and pioneered her own distinctive style, which takes the book's title, Open Impressionism.
This form of expression involves the participation of a bold, abstract under-painting, followed by economical but highly expressive brush marks of pure colour that are neither blended or layered. The paint is prepared on the palette, so that it can be applied to the surface cleanly and with little interference. The total effect is a fresh, zingy mosaic of emotive expressions that lend a transient and breathtaking beauty to her compositions. Not only do the colours pop with blinding clarity, but there appears a shimmering affect where the under-painting shows through. It makes everything appear animated with energy. The grass swirls, the trees shake, and the air breezes through the painting and across the page. I consider how this might be amplified in view of the real thing!
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| Field of Blooms (2016), Erin Hanson. Oil on canvas, 78" x 156" |
My niece and I opened to Field of Blooms (2016), a spectacular double page illustration at the very beginning of the book. It caused us both to instinctively do the same thing at the same time: we reached out to run our fingertips over the page, as if expecting the surface to ripple with the brush marks and thick paint that the ink had somehow magically transformed into.
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