Some recent work from earlier this month.

This first group are field studies that were painted in early May in Sarasota, FL on a short weekend painting trip. We found that our cold northern blood is not so fond of the HOT midday of Gulf Coast Florida. So the painting was best in the morning or afternoon. The rest of the time we did a lot of looking and exploring. Including spending several hours at the Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota. The grounds there are spectacular to see and to paint.

The last painting is now in Charleston, SC at Coleman Fine Art. It is a studio painting of one of the bridges at The Magnolia Plantation in Charleston. Another spectacular preserved garden, like the Ringling grounds, that is a treat to see and paint.


'Botanical Gardens' oil, 10x8 © Marc R. Hanson 2010


'Pair of Paired Palms' oil, 8x10 © Marc R. Hanson 2010
Try saying that 20 times fast!!! This was painted in Myakka River State Park. Alligators...need I say more?


'Lido Beach Park Trees' oil, 10x8 © Marc R. Hanson 2010
There many racoons here. One was next to where we were painting and it was particularly bothersome. It kept coming down from it's palm tree and towards us. Very nasty looking critter.


'Springtime Walk' oil, 18x24 © Marc R. Hanson 2010
Just a pleasant spring light on the subject... wanted to paint it. Not to mention all of the gentle color and textures.

Morel Woods

'Morel Woods' oil, 8x10 © Marc R. Hanson '10

I went to paint the woods behind my house this afternoon. About ten minutes in I found some morels and that was all it took to ruin a perfectly good intentioned day of gathering field studies. Instead my head was glued to the ground for 'mo' morels! I did find more, not a lot, but enough for a taste. More importantly I found out where they are and will be back to check again.

I did paint this little 8x10 study of the interior woodland. This is such an amazing area that I am realizing that it's going to be a never ending source of material for my work. I can see doing some very large scenes of the deep woods. It's almost entirely very large and old maple trees. The canopy is so thick that there is very little under story growth on the forest floor. A perfect hiking and exploring area. And painting area. There are a lot of bugs. Probably bears and according to many around here a possible cougar.

These pics are of the area and of the morels I found.

OPA Award of Excellence!

I am very happy and proud to announce that my painting "Sunday Morning Frost" has been given the "John Marion Pardy Landscape Award of Excellence' at the Oil Painters of America's (OPA) 19th Annual Juried Exhibition of Traditional Oils held at Legacy Gallery in Scottsdale, AZ.

This award is a special one, established by the family of John Marion Pardy, who was a lover of all things outdoors, who instilled a love of the land in his family, and who had a great love of art and music, traditional oil painting in particular. The annual award was set up by his daughter as a way to honor her father and the gift of these loves that he passed on to her.

That's a very special story and makes me even more proud to have been the recipient of it.