"San Miguel - El Jardin"
24" X 36" Oil
"Study for Verano en San Miguel"
12" X 9" Oil |
John graduated from Texas Tech University with a degree in Advertising Art and Design. As an illustrator in New York and then Dallas over the years he has had his illustrations in several magazines such as Automotive Quarterly, Car and Driver, Saga, Town & Country, Flying, Popular Boating, and Popular Science. He has also done work for several large corporations such as Mercedes, Volkswagen, Bell Helicopter, Lockheed Martin, Borden’s, Pearl Beer, Coors Beer, Phillips 66, Shell Oil, Byron Nelson Golf Classic and Chili’s Bar & Grill. Mr. Hanna’s work can also be found in several books published by Harcourt Brace & World and McGraw Hill. He has done work for author Ian Fleming & Warner Bros.
Hanna believes that his career really took off once he traded in the “big city skylines” for the rock houses, livestock, landscape and old barns of Fredericksburg, Texas. “My years in New York and Dallas as an illustrator were great, but I wasn’t really following my heart,” explains Hanna. “Throughout my childhood in Beaumont, I was always drawing and dreaming of becoming a ‘real’ artist. I finally decided that I had to pursue that dream”.
Hanna’s paintings are strong in dramatic light and rich in color. His paintings embrace a variety of subjects from Texas landscapes to livestock portraits, from the Texas Gulf Coast town of Port Lavaca to hill country homes on Gillespie County’s back roads. Some of his paintings portray the big picture, some zero in on a walked-over piece of life. “I like to roll out of bed in the morning grab a cup of coffee, hop into my pickup and just drive around the countryside for inspiration,” he reveals. “Something always triggers a painting an old house, a rock wall, maybe just light playing on creek water. I never run out of things to see.”
John & his wife Sherry moved to Fredericksburg in 1978. They fell in love with and purchased an old house in town that was built in 1906 and have lovingly restored it.
"Hanna - Moore - Sander Summer Show"
July 4 - July 19
New Works by
John Austin Hanna - Robert Moore - Sherry Salari Sander |
