Painting - Realism

Hannah Buchanan

PAINTER

Hannah’s focus on landscape painting is stimulated by a love for the natural environment and an interest in Biocentrism. Through oil paint, she aims to record the pulses of life emanating from the landscape, whilst also focussing on the delicate and impermanent nature of our climate today. By using psychogeography as a means of exploration, she can approach an environment with a deeper scrutiny, deconstructing the essential characteristics of the landscape from which she draws inspiration. Hannah feels a strong connection to the Kentish countryside, where she has lived for most of my life, and this has become the subject of many of her paintings.

Hannahs most recent work is painted with an emphasis on the peacefulness she feels when immersed in the chosen landscape. The feeling of calm portrayed in each painting is dependent on the time of day she chooses to depict, which ranges from bright, energising colours elicited in strong daylight to the muted, soft colours created through dawn and dusk. To achieve this, her current work consists of detailed landscapes which are formed through several thinly applied layers of oil and pigment. With this technical decision, Hannah can amalgamate realism with a utopian depiction of the setting, using sketches, photographs, and her own memories to work from.

Furthermore, whilst she may depict farmland or a landscape that was once curated by mankind, she chooses to leave evidence of modern living and technology behind. The reason for this is twofold. Firstly, she finds the sense of calm is amplified, and secondly, she hopes the viewer will see for themselves the fragility of these beautiful places. Hannah chooses this way of working to reflect on the urgency of climate change, showing the contrast between an unstable climate with the beauty and harmony that still exists in our landscape today. She hopes this encourages the viewer to appreciate the landscape that exists around them, carrying an urge for preservation into their everyday thinking.