Hannah Sessions

I am thrilled with the recent interview published in the Addison Independent newspaper this November. Excerpts are below! or click here to see article.

What do you still find that is new in painting? How do you find your style has changed?

The challenge for me as a painter is this: how to convey an idea with the least number of paint strokes so that the viewer fills in the rest. This leads to a conversation between artist and viewer, and allows the piece to change and have a life of its own. As an artist, I am not particularly interested recording something exactly as I see it- although I totally respect and admire the craftsmanship and skill of those who do paint this way. I like surprises, spontaneity, in my work. I go into a painting with an idea of what I would like to say, but often times things happen in the process that I go with. There are certain rules to painting that work, but within that framework I try to be loose, confident and have fun. With time comes confidence, so I see my technique getting looser and me becoming more confident with each brushstroke as more time goes by.

In the past you’ve described how farming has influenced your painting. Do you ever find that the opposite is true?

These two parts of my life are so intrinsically linked it is hard to separate the two. Certainly, my connection with my animals and this landscape comes through in my paintings. I find that my artistic eye also influences my farm decisions. For example, I choose my breed of laying hens based on color more than production, and color is a factor every time I select a new breeding buck on the farm because chances are good that they will produce offspring of their color. White and black goats are my favorite to paint, and it’s no coincidence that those have been the colors of our most recent bucks.