MEET THE MAKER Most
Hannah Fox
people can nominate their favourite type of landscape. For some, it’s an ocean view or a beach expanse. For others, a vista of rolling hills, perhaps. But for Melbourne artist Hannah Fox, it’s the shimmering silvery grey of the Australian bush.
“I love the texture of the bush and the way the light falls through the gum trees,” says Hannah.
“I love the sound of the bush underfoot, too.”
Hannah’s paintings are mesmerising works that explore the atmospherics – the light, colour, texture and space – of the native bush environment. She works mainly with oil paints on canvas and linen (“oils have such a luminosity and depth”), and her colour palette is a direct response to the natural world, featuring dusty pinks, ochres, terracotta reds, deep indigo blues, gumtree greys and rich olive greens. These “abstract interpretations of the bush landscape”, as she describes them, clearly speak to others as well: her five solo exhibitions have all been sell-out successes.
One of Hannah’s favourite
Australian artists is the late
Fred Williams. “He was less about creating visual reproductions of the bush and more about the way it ‘felt’.
That resonates with me,” she says.
A mum to three boys (aged eight, seven and five), Hannah works from a backyard home studio and manages to schedule three to five painting sessions a week. “The juggle of painting and raising the family is very real!” she says. “Unfortunately, creativity doesn’t always slot into business hours.”
Fortunately, Hannah has found time to design and create a spiral-bound calendar for 2019, featuring 12 prints of paintings she has produced over the past two years. Each image is printed in full colour on quality matte stock (100 per-cent recycled, FSC-certified paper), and at 23cmx23cm they are thoughtfully sized to fit into Ikea’s ‘Ribba’ and ‘Hovsta’ frames.
The ‘Seasonal Shift’ calendar, $39, is available from Hannah’s website and selected retailers. hannahfox.com.au