For Belmont artist Jackie Hanson, the best way to understand a place is to represent it in art.
“When you draw something and try to capture its likeness, you feel like you know it in a different way,” Hanson said over the phone. “That’s what’s exciting about being an artist. I feel like I’m learning things that no one else in the world knows.
Hanson, an alumnus of the New England College Institute of Art and Design, has been showcasing her nostalgic rural paintings along the New Hampshire art market circuit since graduating in May. Her pieces are inspired by beautiful moments in time and painted from photos via watercolor, gouache and chalk pastel paints.
Much of his work depicts typical New England scenes: a Christmas tree farm in winter, the trail looking back from a mountaintop. “Between the field and the farm” shows the old farm, the barn of his grandparents and, in the foreground, the shadow of his cousin who died a few years ago.
In particular, Hanson is drawn to unexpected beauty; instead of capturing the iconic Portland Head Light, she found herself captivated by the creek behind her. “I found this view, where you’re not necessarily supposed to be looking, just as beautiful,” Hanson said.
When not painting nature, they are animals, mostly chickens, each vibrant and distinct, but also cats and dogs, loons in water, and cows in farm fields. When she finally decides to paint something, it’s like rediscovering that scene, or that animal, once again.
“When it inspires me, it can feel like that moment of discovery. It’s exciting to find that scene in my painting,” Hanson said. her subject. I think that’s why people say I capture [their pets’] personalities. Even though I never met them, or they are deceased, I feel like I know them.
One of the best parts of being an artist? Every day there are limitless moments that can be studied intensely. She finds it makes traveling the world incredibly exciting.
“I imagine spending time getting to know that unique moment in that one place. And there are so many of those moments every day. There’s so much to be excited about in the world,” Hanson said. Painting makes me happier than anything. I’m not tired of it. When I decided to be an artist, I knew that I wouldn’t have a plan B, that I would pursue it until it worked.
Last weekend, Hanson sold his fine art prints, maps and paintings at the Warner Fall Foliage Festival, an event that spanned two eight-hour days at a booth inside Warner Town Hall. , which was packed with vendors and pedestrians. Between clients, she worked on a small painting, a winter scene of snow-covered conifers.
Hanson considers it a successful festival if she recoups stall fees plus what she would have earned in her part-time job at Art Plus on Loudon Road, which sells arts and crafts supplies and offers custom frames.
“Yesterday I picked it up twice,” Hanson said on the Sunday of the festival.
With each event, she learns something new: which pieces sell best; how to protect your art in all weathers; how to set the price of its articles; and she takes advice from other artists and artisans, who might tell her about upcoming events or opportunities.
This Saturday, she will be at the last Concord Arts Market of the season at Rollins Park. Event producer Christa Zuber says Hanson is actually one of the many new faces at the event.
“A lot of our sellers have found their art during COVID which is exciting. I love that the Arts Market can be a welcoming place for new artists as well as established sellers. It’s just a great community I love that there are good things that have come out of the pandemic and more people are making art now,” Zuber said over the phone.
Zuber has changed the format of the market over the past two years, moving it from Bicentennial Square to Rollins Park, allowing more room for social distancing. What was once a weekly event now happens five times during the summer and fall seasons. While not as big as market days, Zuber, who primarily sells jewelry, says most vendors are doing better than when they were more regular.
Beyond this market season, Hanson says she doesn’t know where her art will take her. Will she continue with gallery art or will she continue to sell at festivals like these? His approach now is to try everything and see what happens.
The Concord Arts Market takes place on Saturday, October 15, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., at Rollins Park. For more information, visit the market’s website (concordartsmarket.net) or Hanson’s (jackiehansonart.com).
