A Surprise Artistic Adventure

 

We arrived in Oregon last week the day before our event began so we had some time to do some exploring.  Dave had seen an ad on the back of guide for an art gallery belonging to an artist named Erin Hanson and the paintings shown looked beautiful so we decided to go there.  Dave put the address into the GPS and we set off in search of this gallery.  We kept getting further and further away from the city center until we arrived at a new industrial center where the gallery was located.  We commented to each other that it seemed like an unusual spot for a gallery.  Entering we could see that it clearly was a gallery and we proceeded to enjoy the paintings.

The artist has an impressionist style that was very appealing and each painting had its own natural appeal.  

I rounded a corner and found this example of an artwork guide showing an original oil painting, a 3D replica of the painting and a stretched canvas print of the same painting.  

I walked into another room that looked a bit like an office and was greeted by the gallery manager.  She told us a little about the artist, Erin Hanson and told us that this facility is her studio where she paints and where she creates reproductions of her paintings.  

Erin's unique style of painting is known as "Open Impressionism" and I must say, the works were very attractive.  

The gallery manager took us on tour of the facility.  I snapped this photo of her studio showing a painting she was currently working on.  We saw a dark room with the biggest scanner I've ever seen.  That is where the original oil painting is scanned.  In another room we saw a huge 3D printer where the 3D prints are placed on canvases.  In addition to that, we saw the shipping room where canvases are stretched, framed and packaged for shipping to clients all over the world.  It was quite an operation and I had never seen anything like it before.

At the end of the tour, she gave each of us a beautiful gift bag with one of her paintings on the side and filled with a variety of publications.  Two of the magazines were about her work specifically and the others were art magazines in which her works were featured.  

The artist has this studio where she works and a gallery in Carmel-by-the-Sea (California) and we learned that she will soon have a gallery in Scottsdale.  I will look forward to going there when it opens.  

What a nice surprise this was.  Not only did we get to see some wonderful works of art, we also got to learn how print replicas are made.  And we got to see the equipment it takes to do that work.  It was fascinating.