In the Pines

A snow-cloaked cabin, another tucked spectrally in a stand of pines, water lapping at shorelines, a glen under a changeable sky. David Hanes’ brushy, gestural oil paintings are drawn from his outdoor observations, but only to an extent. He sketches his impressions of light, color, and atmosphere en plein air, but they don’t necessarily translate immediately into paintings in the studio—at least not right away.

Sometimes these initial collections of marks and moments are stored for years before they re-emerge with a clarity of direction. The artist likes them to “recollections of marks, rhythms, moods, and the pause between then and now.” He adds, “Built slowly over weeks of layering, they become dwelling places that hold a felt tension between creation, stillness, and the vital weight of being alive: grief and hope, loss and longing, suffering and curiosity.”

In the Pines, for one, captures the ghostly outline of a house amid tall, skinny trees in a soft, brushy composition that belies the worrying mass of glowing red jut beyond the trees. Trees and the Ground feels more direct, also glowing, as if the trunks’ giant roots are grabbing the earth like hands and holding on with all they’ve got. In Hanes’ recent body of works displayed in the Royal College of Art’s MA Painting Degree Show, there is a potent spectrum of tones, from pastel near-abstractions to more saturated, literal representations of landscapes and buildings.

Hanes’ work is currently on view in the group show What Shall We Do For the Rent? at Haricot Gallery in London, which remains on view through August 1. See more on the artist’s Instagram. ✧

All images courtesy of the artist.