Open Skies

A vast evening sky takes up most of this 2018 painting by Erin Hanson, and that imbalance is exactly what she wanted. Clouds swirl overhead in blues, lavenders, and warm golds, each one built from thick dabs of paint that sit side by side like tiles in a mosaic. Hanson calls her approach "Open Impressionism," a fresh spin on the classic Impressionist tradition. Because she rarely blends her strokes, the colors stay crisp and separate, giving the whole surface a glowing, stained-glass feel. Rays of sunlight push through the clouds and spread across the middle of the scene, setting a quiet and hopeful mood.

Down at the bottom, a low stretch of hills and trees sits small beneath all that open air, a reminder of how big the world feels when the sky opens up like this. Hanson grew up outdoors in California, and her deep fondness for wide western landscapes shows in almost everything she makes. She tends to work fast and leaves her brushwork alone once it is down, which keeps her paintings feeling lively and unfussy. The result here is the kind of sunset you might pull off the road to watch until the last light fades.