Hansen Solo Show Opens

Jamie Hansen’s solo show, Instrumental, features 40 pieces in a musical theme. These works are on display at the Anderson YMCA through August 2.

Two Octaves is one of the most recent pieces completed by Hansen, a member of the Anderson Artists Guild. It features a 1925 Cunningham grand piano gifted to her family by her husband’s aunt and transported to their North Carolina apartment in 2001 with financial assistance from Hansen’s grandmother. The couple brought it with them when they moved to Anderson.

That piano has been a source of unlimited inspiration for Hansen’s watercolors. “I must have painted it 15 or 20 times,” she said. “I use different perspectives, viewpoints, numbers of keys, places on the keyboard. I love the way sunlight shines and sparkles on the keys as the light moves across our living room.”

Two Octaves also shows the influence of a workshop Hansen took with watercolor artist Carol Carter in St. Louis in March. “I learned a lot about how to take colors that are opposite on the color wheel and combine them in the same wash to create the illusion of depth and volume,” said Hansen. She finds herself using more colors in a single wash—five or six—but fewer colors throughout the painting. She creates unity by using the same colors throughout the piece, such as using magenta both to create the pink color and to mix with green to make brown.

Readying 40 pieces for a show is a challenge that Hansen met by establishing a goal of completing two paintings per week. “It was like training for a race,” she said.

In addition to the exhibit at the YMCA, Hansen’s work can also be seen at Bay3 Gallery, the Anderson Mall, the new County Bank location on Highway 81, and D. Jefferson and Associates on North Main Street.