PATRICIA HANLON
My first “intentional” painting was of a dairy cow and grain silo, after a second-grade field trip. From then on I was hooked. Over the years I’ve worked in oils and acrylics, fiber art, and assemblage.
In the past few years I’ve been in more traditional mode, painting the iconic waterways, islands, and houses of the Essex River Basin. I look for fresh ways of approaching these familiar scenes. Some of my paintings of Eben Creek, for example, are from the point of view of a swimmer down in the water.
I've exhibited my work at Walker Creek Furniture, of course; at Art in the Barn, and at the Preston-Cutler gallery at Christ Church of Hamilton and Wenham, MA. My work is currently on display at Muzio Designs in Essex, MA.
“Hanlon’s narrative—spare and serene—flows to the rhythms of rising and falling water. Her account, rooted in the particular—nose level in a saltwater creek under the cerulean skies of an idyllic summer, or in icy slush on a dark winter night—is a timely call to consider the tragedies and possibilities of our moment.”
— Deborah Cramer, author of Smithsonian Ocean: Our Water, Our World and The Narrow Edge: A Tiny Bird, an Ancient Crab, and an Epic Journey
In my book, Swimming to the Top of the Tide: Finding Life Where Land and Water Meet, published by Bellevue Literary Press in 2021, I write about my explorations of the tidal estuary observed from daily swims with my husband Robert in the estuary's creeks and channels.