Featured Artist Alice Hauser

Artist Alice Hauser shares an expert eye for color and light in her stunning portfolio of oil paintings. Visit her website to see more.

 

 

I have been drawing and painting since I was a young child. My father introduced me to oils. He was a professor of engineering, but he loved to paint. I will never forget holding my mother’s hand as she took me to see his palette knife painting in a shop window in our small town. My mother was the artist, though. She was always creating beautiful patterns with quilting and intricate needlework.

 

 

I attended BYU and met my husband there. We brought six great kids into the world as he trained as a physician. When the two youngest were in their teens, I went back to school and finished my training as an RN, then worked in a busy NICU. How I loved those babies! But when I finally accepted the fact that the first and last thing ever on my mind was “what can I paint next?” I finally allowed myself to pursue my painting in full force.

 

 

I have studied for years in pastel and oil with remarkable artists. Nicora Gangi introduced me to pastels by having me continually copy master paintings. I still do that weekly to expedite my vertical growth adapting a “perfect practice” model from my studies with Scott Christensen.

 

 

My first introduction to oils was through Lawrence Churski. Those first paintbrushes felt so foreign to me coming from a drawing pastel background, but I soon began to love them.

 

 

I love to paint from life. Whether it’s a life study with a model, setting up a still life, or working en plein air, I am most comfortable painting from direct observation. You will often find me at the river’s edge painting while my better half is fly fishing.

 

 

I constantly challenge myself in my still life work. I love the problem solving involved in creating patterns of value. Bringing out beautiful reflections with as little information as possible and losing edges just really makes me happy. I want to draw the observer into my painting and allow him to finish those lost edges as he discovers things that aren’t seen at first glance.

 

 

My landscapes begin with thumbnails—a plein air or studio color sketch—and then intense studio work. I begin most with a warm, monochromatic underpainting. This is where I work out my value patterns.

 

 

There is something about the movement created in these initial quick marks that pushes me in the right direction.

 

 

As I write, there is a painting in my studio with just the initial color blocked in over that warm underpainting. I just cannot go back into it, because the tree is dancing and I don’t want to stifle it.

 

 

My family is my first love. We’ll soon have twenty grandchildren. Painting is my second. It hasn’t been an easy journey. The more I learn, the more the bar is raised. I am constantly reaching with only one goal—to be able to paint whatever I want, and do it well. I love this quote by Nelson Mandela: “I either win or learn.”

 

Artist Alice Hauser invites you to follow her on Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest.

 

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