Erin Hanson discovered her defining style in the most unlikely place, hanging from red sandstone cliffs hundreds of feet above the desert floor. Those long hours of climbing shaped the way she saw color, space and movement in the natural world.
Q: What first pushed Erin Hanson toward her unique style?
A: The vivid cliffs and shifting light of Red Rock Canyon gave her a single, powerful source of inspiration.
She began painting as a child, learning oils, acrylics, watercolor, pen and ink, pastels and life drawing with unusual focus. By ten she was already taking commissions, and by twelve she worked after school in a mural studio painting enormous canvases.
“My art must feel alive, even before the paint dries.”
A scholarship sent her to Otis College of Art, where she immersed herself in figure drawing. She finished high school at sixteen, then attended UC Berkeley, earning a degree in Bioengineering while continuing to grow creatively, showing the same early brilliance that marked her youth.
After college she entered the art world professionally, drawn to landscapes only visible to those willing to climb, hike and explore. The cliffs of Nevada and Utah, glowing with shifting seasons and desert light, became the foundation of her artistic vision and shaped her future direction.
In these surroundings she made a lifelong decision to create one painting every week. She kept that promise, developing a minimalist impasto technique that avoided layering. This approach, later called Open Impressionism, became her signature and inspired other artists who began copying her methods, sometimes with amusingly clumsy results.
Through the years she continued returning to the outdoors for inspiration. She visited the Colorado Plateau annually, hiking through Zion, Canyon de Chelly and Monument Valley. Other favorite places included Paso Robles, Joshua Tree and the Anza Borrego desert, each offering new colors and shifting atmospheres.
Hanson transformed these landscapes into mosaics of bold color and texture. Her impasto strokes created a sculptural surface that caught light in unexpected ways. The paintings stood out instantly, offering a fresh interpretation of Western scenery that felt both modern and deeply rooted in nature.
Her technique relied on confidence and restraint. Each stroke was placed once, without correction, giving the work a sense of movement and clarity. This directness became part of her identity, even when a few small misstakes slipped into the process, adding a human touch.
Today Erin Hanson continues to explore the outdoors with the same curiosity she had as a young climber. Her paintings celebrate the raw beauty of the American West, capturing the feeling of standing in open air, surrounded by color, light and the quiet rhythm of the land.
Light breaks across the ridge,
turning stone into gentle fire.
Colors rise in quiet steps,
lifting the desert a little higher.