Aaron Hazel paints with spackle knives, palette knives, brushes and, from time to time, his fingers. “They’re an awesome mechanism,” he says. Hazel studied art at Whitman College in Washington state, where he also played basketball. After college he attended workshops by the renowned impressionist Robert Moore who had also been a basketball player. Hazel now assists Moore in his workshops.
Glee, oil, 24 x 25 in.
He will be demonstrating his own painting skills at Manitou Galleries in Santa Fe, New Mexico, during A Weekend with Aaron Hazel on June 13 and 14. The gallery’s general manager, Cyndi Hall, says, “This event is a unique chance to witness Aaron Hazel’s creative process up close and to truly connect with an artist whose work is as profound as it is diverse.”
Pride, oil, 48 x 48 in.
Hazel will begin with a blank canvas and hopes people will come back during the day to see a painting in its many stages. “I want them to experience the interesting development of a painting,” he says. “I begin with a bright acrylic wash and then paint the subject in oil and then paint a primarily tonal background. It’s a playful process and I’ll invite kids to come up and add a stroke with a palette knife that will be part of the finished painting… Painting in public also allows me to hear other peoples’ stories and what they see in my paintings.”
He often paints from vintage black-and-white postcards. Carefully observing the values in the image, he adds color of the same value. In art, “value” refers to the lightness or darkness of a color, forming a gradient from white to black.
Sherman, oil, 48 x 36 in.
Known for his portraits of sports figures and animals, and the underrepresented minorities of the American West, he has recently painted iconic scenes of Santa Fe from vintage post cards as in San Miguel, the oldest Catholic church in America which was built about the same time the city of Santa Fe was founded, circa 1610. His technique of painting with knives often produces a surface resembling a mosaic as in his light-hearted portrait of a burro, Sherman. —
San Miguel, oil, 20 x 16 in.
Manitou Galleries 123 W. Palace Avenue » Santa Fe, NM 87501 » (505) 986-0440 » www.manitougalleries.com
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