Painting Small Works

I started painting landscapes when I was a young girl, and I got my inspiration from backpacking and camping trips around Southern California. Growing up in noisy, smoggy, and concrete-lined Los Angeles, these childhood escapes into the quiet, wide-open spaces of nature had a profound effect on me, and I still find landscapes to be the most beautiful and inspiring subject I can paint.

After graduating from college with a degree in bioengineering, I decided against a laboratory career and moved to Nevada, where I became an avid rock climber.

This was the first time I had seen a red rock landscape face-to-face (actually, hand-to-face), and I was so inspired by the vivid colors and stark beauty of the desert that I decided to create one painting every week just to see where my art would take me.

I have stuck to that decision, and in the past fifteen years, I have created over three thousand paintings.

Utah Butte by Erin Hanson, 2021

Through this process, I have developed a unique style of painting in oils that I call “Open Impressionism.” My chunky, abstract painting style developed from painting nothing but rocks for two years. I loved the rocks I was climbing, and their sharp contrasts, dark outlines, and distinct planes of color were characteristics I emulated in my work.

To capture these aspects of rock, I developed a technique in which I premixed my entire palette of oil colors and then applied thick brushstrokes of paint to the canvas without layering or blending. This gave a spontaneous, textural look to my paintings that appealed to me and captured the vivacity of the desert as I saw it.

When I moved back to California a few years later, I began painting the rolling hills and curving lines of oak trees I found in Paso Robles and other rural areas. I applied my chunky/rocky painting technique to these curving lines, and I discovered that the “squared-off” brushstrokes that worked so well to capture desert rocks also worked great to capture trees and hills. The unique brushwork set my paintings apart from other artists’ work.

Petite Paintings and Small Works

Red Rock Nevada by Erin Hanson, 2006

I began creating “petite” paintings as little studies to reference when painting a larger piece. Oftentimes, I found I loved these little painting sketches better than the larger, finished paintings.

The sketches always seemed to turn out looser and more confident than the final paintings (since I wasn’t worried about creating a finished masterpiece). I could capture an entire vast landscape with only a few dozen brushstrokes that seemed to magically fall in the correct position on the canvas.

Reflected Light by Erin Hanson, 2022

After a few years of painting these sketches, I started deliberately creating these small works, and The Petite Collection was born. Now, I find a particular joy in creating them. It is an exciting challenge to simplify a complicated landscape and find one or two elements to focus on in a petite composition.

When painting petites, I am more willing to experiment and push myself to find new ways to combine color, shape, and texture.

This refinement of technique then spills over into my larger paintings, and I grow more confident in my color choices and brushwork.

Although they started out as mere sketches, petite paintings have become the jewels of Open Impressionism. I hope you enjoy their scintillating colors and light.