Katy Grant Hanson
Few painters tackle the varied mood of the Oregon landscape with as much fever and ferocity as Katy Grant Hanson.
Even fewer do it 'en plein air,' but this is Hanson's preferred approach, to be swept up in the same elements of
nature she strives to bring to her canvas. She's painted the Cascades in blowing snow and wind, and braved the
searing heat of the Oregon high desert. She's even painted from high in the Steens Mountains.
Hanson, a former resident of Cannon Beach, recently published a series of her Northwest landscapes in a book
titled, A Painters View. The book was the culmination of hundreds of forays into the territory of Lewis and
Clark's journey along the Columbia.
Hanson's take on these significant views confirmed her reputation as a supremely skilled landscape painter.
This new collection of work demonstrates her keen eye for the contours and character of Oregon's rivers,
lakes and streams.
Hanson's paintings don't get caught up on minutiae; they speak through confident
gestures, color, and light. She allows her swift and sure brushstrokes to tell of her emotional reaction
to the landscape.
"I see in shape or areas, not line, and I don't like to do a 'careful' drawing,"
explains Hanson. "I work loosely all over the canvas, refining the image using more paint and
pigment as I go."
With this latest body of work, Hanson ventures from the path forged by the Northwest's most famous
explorers, yet keeps her heart and canvas close to the shores and riverbeds of her cherished Oregon
waterways and lands.
"I always gravitate toward the water," Hanson explains. "There's just something about it that speaks to me."
Water is invariably the unifying element that holds each of her works together. And with each scene,
Hanson's adapts a somewhat different approach depending on how the water is speaking to her.
"When painting a waterfall, it is the way the water dances down its particular cliff that is the challenge,"
she explains. "Or sometimes I see and am inspired by water that is very still and peaceful."
In her painting, "Little Beach," softly rendered lines seem to guide the Neawanna River to its end
at the ocean. In "Tumalo Falls," one can almost hear the crash of water as it spills and splashes
down the rock face.
This intimacy with the location is the fuel that feeds Hanson's fire.
"Painting in the studio isn't exciting to me, for me it's about being in nature and having the
challenge of a fight I haven't seen before."
Hanson travels with a painters group, Plein Air Painters of Oregon, often to remote locations. She
says the group has become a backdoor into some of the region's best kept secrets.
Ultimately though, Hanson prefers to paint alone, often finding a spot away from the group, where the
land speaks to her in a way that simply says 'paint me.'
En plein air is a French expression which means "in the open air." And although artists have
long painted outdoors, working in natural light became particularly important to the impressionists
in the mid-1800's. Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir all advocated en plein
air painting, and much of their work was done outdoors.
Occasionally Hanson will make a watercolor study on site, and finish the oil painting at home.
But it's not her preferred approach.
"I prefer to complete a painting on site," she says. "Sometimes they get too tight in the studio."
Hanson's pursuit of the Oregon landscape will likely take her to new frontiers and beyond, but no
matter where she ends up, she always cherishes the process of being on location, even if it does mean
getting rained on, snowed on, or simmered under the high desert sun.
"It's just the challenge and excitement of looking at something in nature and trying to capture an
essence of what I'm seeing," Hanson says.
Katy Grant Hanson's Work at RiverSea Gallery
Click on the following thumbnails to see bigger pictures.
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