Judy Cooke ~ More Zen and Robert Hanson

Finding that Judy Cooke had done the lithographs (see image above) and Robert Hanson had written stories for Zen Painters (see yesterday's post), I needed to know what Robert Hanson's work is like. The actual stories are not on the internet, but a Google search will net you the information that he has written a number of stories, that he is an accomplished artist, that he is a Professor Emeritus from the Pacific Northwest College of Art.

In 2009 Robert Hanson exhibited a series of drawings entitled

Beauty

at PNCA's Feldman Gallery here in Portland. Acorn (shown to the left) was one of those drawings. He seems as transfixed with human heads as I am. Take a look at the individual lines, his marks and the unique coloration. His creations capture the essence of the individual.











In 2002 the Elizabeth Leach Gallery also here in Portland had a showing of Hanson's drawings, stories and photographs in an exhibition entitled Wicked Beings and Other Creatures. Here is an image from that show. From the Gallery's website you'll find this description:

Three short stories by Hanson will each feature one of his favorite early Northern European artists as its central character: Pieter Bruegel and the Giant Rabbit, Albrecht Durer and the Chiseled Christus, and Hieronymus Bosch and the Talking Picture. Accompanying the stories will be a series of portraits of fictional characters which Hanson created through the process of direct observational drawing, and photographs which suggest the imagery of forests and bring to mind stories by the Brothers Grimm.

And then in 2007, Hanson's "Three Graces", was at the Elizabeth Leach Gallery. The elegance of his pencil strokes whether they are his controlled gestures or exact colors create portraits that will stay in your memory for long periods. Here is Blossom looking over at us.

His portraits are so expressive. It's as if each of these people has joined me for coffee as they have done for the last twenty years. They're that familiar.