As a teenager, Hanson worked in an art mural studio creating paintings for restaurants and casinos around the world. A graduate of UC Berkeley, Hanson studied Bioengineering while continuing to pursue her artistic passion. After college Hanson spent fifteen years rock climbing and exploring the dramatic landscapes of the Western states, creating one painting every week to master her skill as an impressionist painter.
Hanson has developed a unique style of painting that is distinctly her own, known as
Open Impressionism. Using only a brush, Hanson uses as few strokes as possible to capture the spontaneity and natural beauty of the landscapes around her. Her richly textured oils are alive with vibrant color and motion. Backpacking and rock climbing provide the inspiration for her work, giving her the opportunity to explore rarely seen terrains and out-of-the-way vistas and transform them into beautiful paintings. Erin Hanson paints with free, wide strokes placed side by side without layering.
She concentrates on the negative spaces in the composition, bringing the light to the foreground, which gives a stained-glass or mosaic quality to her work. Color choice becomes a decision made from instinct, attempting to capture the emotional quality of a beautiful landscape. The interplay of thickly applied paint with smoother areas of the painting creates a rhythm and excitement within her work, inviting the eye to take a journey through the painting.
Hanson continues to backpack and explore national parks and rural areas around the country, gathering inspiration with her camera and condensing the beauty she discovers into evocative impressions of light and color. Hanson’s techniques of Open Impressionism are being taught in art schools around the world, and with millions of followers online and avid collectors spanning the globe, Hanson is spearheading a rebirth of impressionism in the contemporary art world.
“ My paintings are impressions: I try to capture the emotion of color and the freedom I feel being outdoors in wide open spaces. I want my paintings to invigorate the scenes and create an atmosphere that is vibrant and hopeful.”
Impressionists used small, thin brush strokes laid side by side to capture the light and movement of a transient scene. Following in their footsteps, pioneers of art have since developed many new styles of painting.
Open Impressionism catches the attention at once as being a new style of painting, while still having influences from the traditional. The colors are vibrant, pre-mixed, and un-muddied. The impasto brush strokes are left to exist as they are placed, without layering, which preserves every tiny ridge in the paint left by the brush. The dramatic swabs of paint seem chaotic when seen up close, but when viewed from a distance the
painting pulls into focus, in the manner of the classic impressionist paintings. The purpose of Open Impressionism is to capture the true feeling of being outdoors; therefore, each painting is more of an emotional work than a photographic representation. The paintings capture fleeting experiences with a few swabs of colorful paint, attempting to re-capture the feeling of the wind pushing against your back and prickling the sweat in your hair, feet sinking into the damp earth beneath an oak tree, eyes squinting against the sun, feeling burrs in the socks, listening to the rustling aspen leaves and the occasional startled deer.
IMPRESSIONISM HAS A LONG HISTORY OF PAINTERS THAT PUSH THE BOUNDARIES OF ARTISTIC TECHNIQUES.
“I love having it in front of me daily...I love the way it saturates my eyesight with colours...I’ve never seen anything like it.” –M.S.
“I really couldn’t be happier...people who have seen them so far have been awed by their beauty.” –R.D.
“UNBELIEVABLE! Everything we had truly hoped.” –S.G.
“Thank you for your gift of art to this world.” –M.Y.
“Erin’s work makes my heart speed up as my mind calms.”
–A.M.
“Not once have I looked at it without deeply reveling in its beauty.”
–C.S.
“We are so thrilled to be the proud owners of our second Erin Hanson original. We can’t wait to get up in the morning to see its gorgeous colors and textures. It changes the whole dimension of our living space.”
–S.W.
“Wife is absolutely thrilled and I love it too. Amazing, every time I look at it, it gets more and more beautiful. This will be my get out of 'husband' jail for free card for quite a while.”
– C.S.
“Being in front of either of these masterpieces transports me in my mind...you have a very rare and special talent.” –P.K.
“It’s even more vibrant and captivating than we anticipated. Thanks so much for the coffee table book as well. It’s beautiful and we bring it out every time someone comments on your work.”
–S.S. & E.S.
“It is remarkable! You do such incredible work!” –D.J.
“It is beautiful! and adds just the touch of color and class that our room needed. Thanks to all at the gallery for your help.” –A.M.
“You can feel the vibrancy of your brushstrokes, a sense of immediacy. Certainly, the word ‘tepid’ is not in your vocabulary.” –K.R.
“Your paintings are truly stunning.” –A.P.
“I catch my breath every time I see the one in the dining room... It’s so perfect.” –D.S.
The Open Impressionist Frame, designed by Erin Hanson, captures the elegance and timelessness of an impressionist frame and combines it with the contemporary look of a floater frame. These frames stand away from the sides of the canvas with a ¼-inch gap, letting you experience every impasto brush stroke on the canvas. Each frame is hand-carved and gilded with genuine gold leaf. The Open Impressionism frame is the perfect complement to Hanson's style of painting, which is also a blend of the modern and classical.
Visit www.erinhanson.com to start exploring!
The “EH Frames” are custom floater frames manufactured for Erin Hanson. They are finished in 23kt gold or sterling silver, with a burnished overlay. The sides of these frames are pebbled black.
Hanson creates her petite series on linen board, instead of stretched canvas. These small works have three framing options: black-and-gold, gold, or silver.
Small oil paintings under 20 inches have a special charm and bring a spot of fresh color to your home. The Petite Collection ranges in size from 8x10 to 16x20 inches. These paintings are beautifully framed in custom gold, silver, or black-and-gold frames. The brush strokes in these small paintings are delicate yet energetic, alive with color and motion. These petites are perfect for those just starting their art collections or for anyone looking for the perfect painting to fit a small nook or hallway. The charm and character of these pieces will brighten any room in your home.
Visit www.erinhanson.com
Discover the cutting-edge technology of 3D fine art printing, which has opened the door to enthusiastic art collectors who want limited edition reproductions that are as close to the original as possible. Since Hanson’s work is all about texture, she has developed a method of scanning and printing her work so that every ridge of every brushstroke is reproduced (and even the canvas texture itself!). Using microlayered 3D modeling and 48-bit color, Erin Hanson's new 3D Textured Replicas are almost indistinguishable from her originals, and they re-create the emotional impact of her thickly textured brush strokes, as well as staying true to her vibrant colors. Each limited edition 3D Textured Replica is hand-signed and numbered by the artist.
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Erin Hanson’s fine art canvas prints are designed to be stretched and framed in floater frames, like Erin’s original paintings. The canvas prints are high-resolution printed photographs of her paintings. Each print captures the illusion of texture due to the shadows created while photographing the original oil painting. Erin personally selects the inks and canvas used to make her prints, and she oversees production to ensure quality and accuracy. Canvas prints can be ordered in a variety of sizes and frame options, so you are sure to find the perfect fit for your home.
Visit www.erinhanson.com to start exploring!
