Illustrated by Steve Hanks
November 2007 Release
$85 | $110 CDN
11 x 14
176 pages
Hardcover, jacketed, shrinkwrapped
Over 160 full color paintings
ISBN-10: 0-86713-098-9
ISBN-13: 978-0-86713-098-0
UPC 7-66710-83098-5
Product No. 83098 / Art
Steve Hanks is first and
foremost a figure painter. His watercolor paintings
are infused with emotion and a kind of poetry formed
by light and shadow in his compositions. He often
paints what he refers to as "moments of introspective
solitude," with deep respect for the privacy
of the individual lost in reflection. Each painting
holds a mystery that is also a personal story about
the artist as he expresses his own emotional unfolding
through art.
Just as writers are urged to "write what you
know," Steve Hanks paints what he lives. When
his children were born his work was filled the profound
intimacy between infants and parents, the unexpected
joy of toddlers, and the wonder of youngsters finding
their way in the outside world.
Throughout his body of work, the study of the figure
is primary and no where is this more in evidence than
in Hanks' nudes. Forms are defined by light slanting
through windows and sunlight through fabric or the
drape of a sheet. Through Steve's mastery of composition,
shadow and light, his figures emerge from the paper
fully formed, unique, and mysterious.
The emotional impact of these detailed and highly
realistic paintings is undeniable. Whatever the subject—children,
families, women, nudes, landscape, moving water, or
textile patterns—the paintings are also about
light and shadow, and reflect a personal challenge,
pain, or joy of the artist.
The paintings in this volume represent the most extensive
collection of the artist's work in over ten years.
Some time after his divorce in the 1990s, Steve began
a series of paintings about healing. The paintings
in this series are both deeply personal in their symbolism
of the artist's own life and universal in their emotion
and experience. "I want my whole body of work
to tell a story when I'm gone," says Steve. "It
will tell the story of my life emotionally."
Steve Hanks is the premier artist working in the
technically-demanding field of realistic watercolor
figure painting today. His astonishing realism comes
from a skillful control of washes, edges and layers,
and his knowledge of the properties of water and pigment.
"Now I understand how to gain control by letting
go," says the artist. "I just want to be
part of the ride."
|
