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Vibrant Landscape Paintings Use the Color Orange to Capture the Warm Glow of the American West

Artist Erin Hanson is known for expressing her love of the outdoors through vibrant landscape paintings. Using her contemporary technique of Open-Impressionism (a unique blend of Impressionism and Expressionism), she allows un-muddled hues and thick, energetic brushstrokes to showcase the grandiose beauty of locales like the National Parks. Continuing with this nature-driven theme, she’s recently produced paintings that focus on the color orange.

“I am always looking for ways to push myself artistically and challenge the way I think about color and composition,” she writes. “I came up with the idea of focusing on a single color for a whole collection as a way to really delve into the boundaries of ‘orange’ and explore how this color can be used in different landscapes to create an emotional impact.”

Orange cloaks the American West in both high and low ground. From towering mountainscapes to fall foliage to the base of rolling hills, this warm glow symbolizes the passage of time—the rising and setting sun as well as the changing seasons. Hanson’s meditation on orange demonstrates how it seeps into our lives so inconspicuously that we might not notice it, but her paintings are a beautiful reminder of its presence.

These new works are part of Hanson’s aptly-titled exhibition, The Orange Show. Set against midnight-blue walls, the pieces will be displayed at The Erin Hanson Gallery in Los Angeles from October 1 to October 28, 2016.

Erin Hanson: Website | Facebook | Instagram

My Modern Met granted permission to use photos by Erin Hanson.

Sara Barnes

Sara Barnes is a Staff Editor at My Modern Met and Manager of My Modern Met Store. She is a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art where she earned her BFA in Illustration and MFA in Illustration Practice. Sara is also an embroidery illustrator and writer living in Seattle, Washington. She runs Bear&Bean, a studio where she stitches pet portraits and other beloved creatures. She chronicles the creativity of others through her website Brown Paper Bag and newsletter, Orts. Her latest book is Threads of Treasure: How to Make, Mend, and Find Meaning Through Thread, published in 2014. Sara’s work has been recognized in Be Creative With Workbox, Embroidery Magazine, American Illustration, on Iron and Wine’s album Beast Epic, among others. When she’s not stitching or writing, Sara enjoys planning things that bring together the craft community. She is the co-founder of Camp Craftaway, a day camp for crafty adults with hands-on workshops in the Seattle area.
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