Author: Stephen T. Hanks

Go to the Classes tab at the top of this page to see all of the classes that I am teaching this winter and spring.  I’ve just posted new information there about basic drawing and watercolor painting classes that I am teaching for the Holiday Park Senior Center and for the Montgomery County Public Library system (at the M. Praisner and White Oak libraries) starting in April.

I just finished these three new paintings as demos for my basic watercolor class at Holiday Park.  I hope you like them.

 

 

 

 

Select the “Classes” button at the top of this page to learn more about the classes I will be teaching starting in January of 2015.

Hello everyone. I’ve been doing a great variety of new artwork over the past year that I’ve recently been preparing (matting and framing) for a variety of shows that I’m exhibiting in this summer and fall. I currently have two paintings hanging at the Montgomery Artist Association (MAA) Gallery in Wheaton Mall called Maine Coast and Vemeer’s Kitchen. I’ve got a brand new painting (below) called The Admiral’s Favorite Medal that will be in a Baltimore Watercolor Society (BWS) show at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton starting the second week of August.

And finally, I’ve got a variety of new work appearing in the MAA Annual Kensigton Armory Show over Labor Day weekend (Sat-Mon, 8/30-9/1). These include the Kensignton submission Circle Mansion, a landscape A Walk on the Dunes, a portrait Me, Myself, & I, and an abstract called Something Wicked This Way Comes (below).  Hope to see you at any of these shows.

I’m also teaching a variety of classes this Fall. Click on My Classes (above) for more information about them.

You are invited to see some excellent artwork done by students in various art classes that I have taught over the past seven years for Montgomery College, Leisure World, and Gonzaga College High School.  Simply select the “Student Work” button at the top of this page and then view the slide show (all 4000+) or limit the viewed selection by choosing any of the categories (artist name, watercolors, drawings, portraits, etc.) listeded below the slide show.  There are some really talented artists’ artwork displayed there.  You’ll note that the artwork images are displayed using the functionality of Yahoo FLICKR and every image is named using the artists name (last name first), and all are additionally searchable with tags  by content (e.g. landscape or portrait), media (e.g. watercolor), year of creation (e.g. 2013), institution (e.g. MC for Montgomery College), and type (e.g. abstract).  The images are also grouped into sets by the institution/year that hosted the art classes (e.g.Gonzaga 2010-2011 or 2009-2010, MC, Takoma, Rossmore, and HPSC for Holiday Park).  Here is an example the Watercolor Techniques class by Judy Wilson,

Select the “Classes” button at the top of this page to learn more about the classes I am teaching now (Fall 2013) and will be teaching next year (Winter/Spring 2014).

Many years ago my Dad painted a picture of his father, Howard, and a few years later I did a painting of my Dad’s mother, Granny Ceil. Both paintings have been hanging around for years. But just a month ago, my mother suggested that I do one of her father, Samuel Sewall. And she sent me an iconic photo showing him and his favorite hobby, fishing. We grand kids called him Grumpy Mike and the photo at the right shows me as a little kid giving him a big hug. He and my maternal grandmother Nana lived for many years in Islip, New York, way out on the south coast of Long Island where my family spent some great summer vacations visiting them. In those days there was no bridge to Fire Island so Grumpy Mike had to take us out there on his boat. He’d fish all day while my family spent the day body-surfing the big waves at Jones Beach. On the way back he’d anchor on a sand bar in the middle of the Sound and we’d all dive down to dig up fresh steamer clams. Often we kids would also net crabs off all of the docks in the inlet where Grumpy had his dock out back of their house. And then with fresh fish, clams, and crabs we’d have a seafood feast for dinner and then collapse into bed exhausted from too much sun and swimming all day. Those were great vacations!! Just below is the new painting of Grumpy Mike.

A month or so ago, I was contacted via email by a young woman asking if I would be interested in doing a commission painting of her.  She was initially confused  that I was the “other” Steve Hanks, a well known painter in Arizona.  I explained this and she realized her mistake, but even so, she asked if I would consider doing the commission.  I told her I would, and explained how we might manage it… trading photographs in a variety of poses and discussing possible backgrounds.  So after a week of such communications, she sent me pictures of herself… and much to my pleasant surprise… in the nude… and so pretty!  In the past, I’d done both drawings and paintings of nudes before, usually in a classroom setting, but never a commission piece.  So I was quite enthusiastic about the idea and so was Michelle (the young woman in the photo).  So, I selected one of the photos she had sent and did a large drawing of the figure.  I also realized that I needed to have a different background than the original photo… something that would be a nice contrast to the warm flesh tones of her skin.  I had an old quilt that my mother had sewn many years before and I thought it would make a nice light background with colorful patterns and soft textures.  So I draped the quilt over my own couch at home and took a few photos of it from a similar viewpoint as the original photo of Michelle.  I then added the quilt to the large drawing that I had already done of the figure.  I thought the combination worked well and started the painting.  Now a few weeks later, I’ve finished it.  Michelle has seen it and seems pleased with it… and has given me permission to show it here.  If you like, you may post comments here, or you may send comments directly to Michelle at mwilkes333@netscape.net to tell her what you think.

 

I’ve got nine paintings in four different exhibitions at the moment.  Two of them are Montgomery College Art Department staff exhibitions;  two paintings (Tattooed Face and 4 by 4 Self), are at the Black Rock Art Center in Germantown and another three paintings (Cezanne’s Mountain, British Armada, Satyr’s Rest) are  in the Cafritz Art Center Gudelsky Auxillary Gallery on the Takoma Park MC campus.  One painting, Trolls Tollbooth, shown below, is hanging in the Clubhouse 1 at Leisure World.  And finally, three more (further below, Dean & Jerry; Larry, Curly, & Moe; and Near Oberammergau) are hanging in the Montgomery Artist Association (MAA) Gallery in Wheaton Mall.

One other piece of good news!  I just sold two different drawings of a large Chesapeake sailboat; called Coming and Going.

Click on Classes above to learn more about all of the new classes I’m teaching in 2013

This past year, I began a series of paintings of animals in their natural habitat and named them after comedy teams of the 40’s and 50’s.  The first was Larry, Curly, and Moe seen just below:

The most recent is called Dean & Jerry.  This painting was in the recent Labor Day exhibition held by the Montgomery County Association at the Kensington Armory.  It won a third prize.