Joan Hansen

La Jolla, CA artist Joan Hansen paints with passion and an eye for color. The award-winning vibrant paintings of landscapes, water scenes, wildlife, florals and wine themes express her love of color and nature.

AcrylicWork 7, a magazine which includes 102 winning works by today’s top acrylic talents, featured one of her paintings. Walter Foster Publishing, Inc. contracted Hansen to write, illustrate and star in several art instruction products including a DVD entitled Getting Started in Watercolor. It won an “Award of Excellence” for “Best Art Product” at a CHA show. She wrote and illustrated two art instruction books, Floral Scenes, and Flowers. Hansen is a contributing author for Florals & Botanicals, Landscapes, and Color Made Easy, watercolor art instruction books; as well as Acrylic Painting, and Watercolor, which are project kits and books for beginners. She is also a contributing artist in Painting Great Pictures from Photographs, published by Quarto Publishing in England. Splash III, and Splash IV, published by North Light Books, included her work in their books, which reviewed the work of America’s best contemporary watercolorists. Hansen’s work has also been featured in a number of magazines. Several companies have licensed Hansen’s work for a variety of products.

Museum shows include exhibits at the San Diego Museum of Art, the San Diego Natural History Museum, and the Bonita Museum & Cultural Center. Hansen’s work was selected as a finalist for The Directory of Illustration and Design’s competition, and she was invited to participate in RSVP’s exhibition at The Society of Illustrators’ Main Gallery in New York City.

Selected awards include Best of Show for her painting Okapi in the Endangered show at The Studio Door Gallery; inclusion in 50 to Watch, a regional exhibition and national catalog featuring San Diego’s professional and emerging visual artists; the San Diego Zoological Society’s Zoonooz Award for Best Interpretation of the Theme for her painting Celebrate the Colors of the Wild; Best of Show, San Diego County Fair, for Hansen’s web site design of www.joanhansenart.com; a cash award, the Del Mar Award, for the painting Luminous Surf; two Honorable Mentions for Cowabunga Dude and Exquisite Bouquets, paintings accepted for the San Diego County Fair’s Fine Art Exhibit; and a cash award from the National Arts Program, sponsored by the Leonard W. E. Andrews Foundation of Philadelphia, for her painting Calla Lilies and Lilacs.

Hansen taught acrylic painting and drawing workshops for the Grumbacher Company at Michaels stores in San Diego for five years. While working as an art consultant to elementary schools, Hansen taught drawing and painting classes to elementary school students from kindergarten through sixth grade. Her workshop students include students throughout southern California. Hansen is an art show jurist, and she gives painting demonstrations and workshops for art associations. The San Diego Zoo and Safari Park carried many of Hansen’s wildlife posters, and had their logo included on numerous Hansen images. Individuals and corporations throughout the world collect her work.

“As artists, we have the opportunity to express our unique thoughts and passions through the medium of our choice. Interwoven through my work are threads of organic line and luminous color. The organic lines symbolize my love of nature, and the luminous color expresses my continuing passion for the vibrancy of life. It intrigues me to capture and paint the illusive choreography in Nature’s eternal dance of light and shadow.”