Cultivated LightAI

Take a moment to soak in the colors here. Erin Hanson painted this scene of a farm field at sunset using a style she calls "Open Impressionism." If you look closely, you can see the thick, chunky brushstrokes laid down one next to the other, almost like puzzle pieces or a mosaic. Hanson never blends her colors on the canvas. Instead she places each stroke deliberately, which gives the whole painting that shimmering, energetic feeling. The sky glows with pink, orange, and purple, while the plowed rows of the field sweep across the ground in greens, blues, and golds.

What makes Hanson's work interesting is her background. She grew up partly in a rock climbing community near Red Rock Canyon in Nevada, and that love of dramatic western landscapes shows up in nearly everything she paints. She challenged herself early on to create one new painting every week, which sharpened her bold, simplified approach over time. The dark, twisting tree in the foreground gives this piece a nice sense of depth, framing the bright fields beyond and pulling your eye toward that distant burst of light on the horizon.

This is a painting that rewards both a quick glance and a longer look. From far away it reads as a peaceful country evening, but step closer and it breaks apart into hundreds of little dabs of pure, vivid color.