Artist Yükselle Hassan’s atmospheric canvases are filled with swirling patterns of color and light. View more of her paintings on her website.
The day I noticed nature around me for the first time as a child, I had this unstoppable urge to interpret, illustrate, draw, paint and let people see the world as I saw it. Hence my destiny was revealed.
I observe and am inspired by the divine forces of air and water shaping our amazing planet. Then I pour this evocative, ambient impression on canvas in a flight of fancy. As one of my clients put it, I see the soul of the landscape beyond its physical majesty. Using harmonious colours and flowing forms, I open a window to an atmospheric world which I call realism in fantasy.
Although the materials I use are as simple as acrylic on canvas, my style is not simple or conventional, but spiritual. I find water-based acrylic which is healthy and easy to work with. Its quick drying quality makes me move fast and achieve light ephemeral images. I build it up layer upon layer to make it look like an oil painting.
As a worshipper of nature, my work depicts the moods and colours of the Great Lakes and Georgian Bay as well as the romance of the lakes district of Muskoka, Ontario. The result is evocative, ambient and atmospheric.
I studied art in the Academy of Fine Arts in Istanbul, Turkey. Crossing the ocean with my husband as a young couple, I adopted Canada as my second homeland in the seventies. I acquired many skills while living most of my adulthood in Toronto, including computer graphic design and art directing.
Beside working at Scholastic Canada full time, I continued to paint and showed my work at galleries annually to enthusiastic art followers.
For many years I also have dabbled in the ancient art of marbling. Marbling involves creating fluid patterns with natural pigments in a basin of water and transferring those patterns onto a paper. I have used those serendipitous patterns as backgrounds to a variety of subjects. In Turkish, the art of marbling is called Ebru, which means “clouds” or “like clouds.” Working with those fluid patterns eventually led me to find my own style on large canvases.
I moved from Toronto to make Southampton my home. This gave me the chance to watch the vast sky and learn the movements and formations of the clouds and their reflections on the great inland sea Lake Huron. Lake Huron and Georgian Bay became a major source of inspiration and consequently, my landscape style flourished. Now my brush moves on canvas as if I am making Ebru.
My art is represented by the Southampton Art Centre. It is a beautiful establishment giving space to artists in this picturesque resort town called Southampton in Ontario, Canada. My tiny studio in our garden is open by appointment.
I am still much the same as I was as a child, inviting people to see the world through my eyes.
Artist Yükselle Hassan invites you to follow her on Instagram.
Speak Your Mind