Poised Between Heartbeats

Description

The Art of Steve Hanks
Poised Between Heartbeats

The incredibly detailed watercolor art of Steve Hanks
First Edition
Hardcover
125 pages
15” x 13”

“Master artists are known for selecting a medium that enhances their subject. No doubt Steve Hanks chose his prime medium of watercolor when he discovered that the union of water with layers of pigment best conveys both the intimacy and expansiveness of light.
Among the many attributes of watercolor are its transparency and its color building process in gauze-like layers of paint. Hanks uses these to the fullest in his consummate illusions of diaphanous blouses, sheer curtains, and the paper-thin skin of a newborn. Just as significant to a watercolor painting, however, is the reflectivity of the white sheet of archival type paper. Hanks’ brilliant light effects are achieved through the physics of actual light rays penetrating color, reflecting off the paper and bouncing back to enrich the viewer’s vision.”

Hanks is, first and foremost, a figure painter, following in line with such masters of the human form as Raphael, Rembrandt, Vermeer, and Ingres. Through the effects of light on the figure, Hanks molds visions that convince us of the singular beauty of the human form as a meritorious subject in its own right.
Susan Hallsten McGarry