Our Town: Local artist is enthralled by light in a landscape

Published 1:30 am Wednesday, March 2, 2022

Editor’s Note: The Beachcomber partners with Vashon Island Visual Artists (ViVA) to highlight the vibrant arts community of Vashon. This week, painter Gretchen Hancock tells us, in her own words, about her life and work. To learn more about ViVA artists, visit vivaartists.com.

My art career started with a drawing class in college; I enjoyed it so much that I decided to major in art. I wound up in the ceramics department and I earned my living as a potter for several years. Since then I have worked in watercolor, acrylics, pastels, and oils.

The statements of the artists whose work I admire usually go something like this: “I am fascinated by (entranced by, consumed by, enthralled with) light in the landscape … I want to convey this excitement and wonder to my viewer.” That’s me, too!

There must be an ancient tribe of sun worshipers from whom we have all descended. I stop in my tracks when I see the sun peeking from behind a cloud, a dazzling reflection on Quartermaster Harbor, or sunlight filtering through the madrona trees.

I use a digital camera to take pictures of Vashon scenery and I have a large library of photos that I’ve taken. I crop and re-format, draw, and move objects or change elements, lighten and darken values, adjust colors and saturations, and broadly edit the composition. I make all of my compositional decisions while working on the computer — I find that more than half of the work of a painting is done in this preliminary stage.

Working from photographs is very removed from the subject matter, so to keep from burning out, I switch to still life, which I set up in my studio, or go out painting en plein air.

I am happiest when something I have done stands up over time. Recently I went back to look over pieces that I had produced in the last 20 or 30 years, and I was pleased to discover how many of them I still liked!

Visit my blog at gretchenhancock.blogspot.com, email me at gretchen.hancock@comcast.net, visit my store at gretchenhancock.etsy.com, or call me at 206-463-5352.