For over a decade now, Erin Hanson has returned to a particular subject for her paintings: vineyards. “I’ve always loved painting natural landscapes, and vineyards are the only ‘man-made’ thing I paint,” she says. “It’s so fascinating how the way the vines are planted accentuate the natural landscape.”
Hills of Vines, oil on canvas, 30 x 48”
A collection of Hanson’s vineyard paintings will soon be displayed at the Bone Creek Museum of Agrarian Art in the exhibition Erin Hanson: Colors on the Vine. In 2014, the museum displayed Hanson’s work in an exhibition drawn from a New York-based private collection, and curator Amanda Mobley Guenther says, “I am thrilled to welcome Erin Hanson and her work once again to the Bone Creek Museum, this time on a grand scale. The gallery will be simply bursting with color.”
Before she starts a painting, Hanson does a significant amount of preplanning. “I have the whole painting mapped out in my mind before I start. I’ve worked out any trouble areas about color and composition beforehand,” she says. “Once I actually start, it often comes together very quickly.”
On the Vine, oil on canvas, 20 x 24”
Over the years, she’s developed a unique style that she calls “open impressionism.” She makes intentional strokes and does very little blending. Up close, her paintings may look abstract, but when the viewer steps back, they’ll see the paintings have a kind of stained-glass effect to them.
Autumn Dreams, oil on canvas, 30 x 30”
“When I first started oils when I was a child, I did things that traditional way, using a lot of turpentine and waiting weeks between layers. And it could take months to finish a painting,” she says. When she got back into painting as an adult, she wanted to work faster, so she experimented and created the technique that would allow her to use oils in a less traditional way.
Hanson has recently relocated from Paso Robles in the heart of California’s wine country to the Willamette Valley—Oregon’s wine country. One of the paintings on view in the show, Vineyard Shadows, is based on a landscape located 10 minutes away from her gallery.
Vineyard Shadows, oil on canvas, 30 x 40”
“There are all these rolling hills that come down from the mountains that are covered in vineyards,” she says. Compared to the California vineyards, there’s significantly more greenery in Oregon, and in Vineyard Shadows, the vines are buttressed by oaks and pines. “I like how the vertical lines of the design pull you down into the landscape. It’s a beautiful mix of man-created nature and naturally occurring nature.”
Erin Hanson: Color on the Vine will have an opening reception on July 29 from 5 to 7 p.m. —
Erin Hanson: Color on the Vine
July 15-November 5, 2023
Bone Creek Museum of Agrarian Art, 575 “E” Street, David City, NE 68632
(402) 367-4488, www.bonecreek.org
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