Reflected Light (section)

Erin Hanson painted this glowing sunset in 2010, and the first thing that grabs you is the texture. Every brushstroke sits on the canvas like a little block of color, thick and confident, with almost no blending between them. The sun burns white at the heart of the scene, ringed by fiery orange clouds, while the sky above splinters into soft patches of lilac, peach, and buttery yellow. Below it all, the water throws that light back in a broken trail of orange that stretches down toward the bottom of the frame.

Hanson works in a style she named "Open Impressionism," her own updated spin on the ideas the old Impressionists loved. Landscapes of the American West are her usual subject, always built from these clean, mosaic-like dabs that skip the tiny details in favor of bold shapes. The reflection here is where the painting really comes alive. Rather than smoothing the water into a mirror, she chops it into hundreds of tiny color tiles, blues and pinks jostling against that streak of burning sun. The subject could not be simpler, a sunset over the sea, but the busy, patchwork energy of the paint keeps your eye moving across every inch.