Life & Work with Hannah Campbell

Today we’d like to introduce you to Hannah Campbell.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I began painting in high school. As a kid, I always enjoyed drawing and doodling, but I didn’t really begin to love art until I had a class with Mr. Hamilton. He taught me many valuable lessons: how to pace myself with painting (I always felt that I had to finish a painting in one session, and he taught me that I didn’t have to finish it in a day), how to practice various skills, how to see distance, and how to show depth. Most important of all, though, he let me use my imagination, and with his teaching, I was finally able to put what I was seeing in my head down onto the paper. 

I continued to paint for fun in college and participated in community art nights. When I graduated, I took a job teaching overseas for three years. As I traveled, I was exposed to so many different styles of art and so many different mediums. I acquired a set of inktense pencils (my kind coworkers bought them for me for my birthday), and I fell in love with using them! 

Inktense is a medium unlike any other. Inktense pencils go down on paper like a very dull colored pencil. Yet when you go over the colors with water, they come alive and turn into a vivid watercolor paint. I love watching the colors solidify in front of my eyes, and I enjoy the added challenge of trying to imagine what colors are needed for a finished painting. 

When I came home, I got into the local art scene by participating first in community galleries. Because we are right outside Joshua Tree National Park, our galleries tend to be filled with desert landscapes, beautifully painted night skies, and adorable desert creatures. I began painting these landscapes, but I would put a bit of whimsy in the details for the discerning viewer. I began selling my originals, and so I found a place that made copies and I began to sell prints. 

I started out small, just doing one to two art booths a year. Now, I’ve grown into a season; I sell during the fall with art tours, art fairs, and Christmas craft fairs. 

We all face challenges, but looking back, would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
My biggest struggle is finding the time to do art. I have a full-time job as an elementary school teacher, and during the school year, I often work with the kids in after-school lessons, teaching music and art. With all the hustle of the after-school tutoring and the extra work required of the teaching profession (grading, planning, and a thousand other little things that often happen outside working hours), I struggle finding time to create. Fortunately, I have the summer, so I do have some time in which to work on new paintings. But I have to be disciplined and really buckle down to prepare for the season’s new art; nothing good is ever made in a rush, and I aim for at least three new paintings each year, besides handmade jewelry and other items, I make to sell at the booths. 

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
My art is known for having a whimsical quality that pulls people into a story. I love to add little details inside my paintings, which enhance the paintings by involving the other senses if you know what it is you’re looking at. For example, I might paint a picture of a desert scene. At first glance, it looks like a regular (if somewhat cartoonish) landscape. But if you know what a creosote bush smells like, you’d notice I put one in my painting, and now you have a sense of what the landscape might smell like. Then, I might draw some bushes blowing in the wind, and now you have a sound to hear as well. A dust cloud may be looming on the horizon, and now you can feel the gritty dirt in the air. Some gold paint later, and you can feel the heat vaporizing off the hot desert sands. You can almost taste the heat, like the air from inside an oven. Now, onto this lovely backdrop, I draw in a snake in a sombrero, or a jackalope, or a coyote playing the ukulele, and you, the viewer, are suddenly dropped off into the midst of a story. 

Is there a quality that you most attribute to your success?
When people look at my art, they tend to feel happy. I get a lot of satisfaction out of painting, and I think that cheerfulness comes out in my work. People come out to our desert on vacation to see the stars, to bond with friends and family, and to escape regular life for a few days. Though the desert is a stunning place with a solemn feel (and yes, even danger to it), the desert is my home. It’s where I grew up. I played in empty fields with my brother and explored the desert washes with my friends. I’ve leaped from boulder to boulder like a mountain goat (not that I’d try that now, haha!) and made makeshift forts inside juniper bushes. I’ve studied the land and animals up close by growing up here, and painting desert landscapes just brings all those days of freedom and imagination to the forefront. I want other people to see how beautiful the desert is, but I also want them to see the joy in being out in nature as well. 

Contact Info:

• Instagram: www.instagram.com/hannahgraceartworks
• Email: [email protected]

Image Credits
A&I Reprographics