Oystercatchers #141
48" x 30"

The rocky knoll paintings with columbine spilling down are inspired by visits to Sombrio Beach and Haida Gwaii.

Oystercatchers #143

48" x 30"

Oystercatchers #142

48" x 30"

I rarely paint without music. This time the oystercatchers are flying to G.F. Handel on the Tafelmusik: Baroque Orchestra & Chamber Choir, 30th anniversary album.

Oystercatchers #144
48" x 30"

Oystercatchers #137
48" x 36"
Oysteratchers #137 & 138 fit together as a diptych (not shown).

"Those columbines look like squid/starfish or gunshots (the other Columbine, since you said the word.) But oystercatchers always look themselves." -- American Pacific northwest poet visiting Anne's studio, Dec 2009

Oystercatchers #138

48" x 36"

Oystercatchers #135

36" x 48"

Hanging out with oystercatchers and whales in one's own studio!

Oystercatchers #131, 132 & 133

These three paintings (each 48" x 30") recently enjoyed hanging in the Artist's Corner of the Greater Victoria Public Library, downtown Victoria.

Finally! Oystercatchers #123, 124, 125 & 126 photographed as a panorama

Four 48" x 36" canvases = 4 feet by 12 feet

Oystercatchers #128, 129 & 130

Three 48" x 30" canvases = 48" x 90" panorama

Oystercatchers #127

48" x 48"

Oystercatchers #107

24" x 48"

On the James Bay Art Walk studio tour, several people asked which Oystercatchers are presently on display at the Oak Bay Library. Oystercatchers #107, for example, has recently returned from the Library. It is available, and I welcome your queries.

Oystercatchers #103, 104, 105, 106

These four canvases form a 4-foot by 12-foot panorama.

Oystercatchers #128

48" x 30"

Oystercatchers 128, 129, and 130 form a 3-part panorama, currently on display at Victoria International Airport.

Oystercatchers #129

48" x 30"

Oystercatchers #130

48" x 30"

Oystercatchergirl in natural habitat

My best painting happens when I'm immersed in music. The latest creations have been made under the influence of Leonard Cohen's "I'm Your Man" album.

Oystercatchers #124

This is part of a 4-piece artwork (with Oystercatchers #123, 124, 125, and 126).

Oystercatchers #125

48" x 36"

The red guy is a Pacific blood star.

Snippet of Oystercatchers #122

60" x 36"

"Art, being quite useless, except to the soul, is the highest of all human endeavours." - Bruce M. Rogers

"If nations can wage war, they can also wage art. Art is the opposite of thuggery and destruction." -- artist Mendelson Joe (see link, above)

Oystercatchers #77

48" x 48"
SOLD
(from Sooke Harbour House Gallery)

Oystercatchers #112

A view from the seashore last December

12" x 24"
Not for sale

Oystercatchers #103

48" x 36"


When this painting is put together with three of its companions (not shown), they form a 12-foot wide coastal mural.

Oystercatchers #109

16" x 20"

Oystercatchers #108

16" x 20"

Oystercatchers #80

48" x 48"

Oystercatchers #102

48" x 48"

The 100th Oystercatcher!

Oystercatcher #100
24" x 24"

Oystercatchers #78

30" x 48"

Oystercatcher #93

48" x 48"

Oystercatchers #88

48" x 36"
SOLD

#88 and #89 are a diptych, i.e., when put together they are a seamless picture.

Oystercatchers #89

48" x 36"
SOLD

Four "Stylish" Oystercatchers

Oystercatchers #94, 95, 96 (SOLD) and 97
All are 36" x 12".

Oystercatchers #92

48" x 24"

Oystercatchers #90 & 91

Each are 48" x 36".
When put together seamlessly, they become a 48" x 72" diptych

Oystercatchers #98

24" x 12"

Oystercatchers #87

36" x 12"

Oystercatchers #86
36" x 12"
My protest sign.

"There is no trajectory so pathetic as that of an artist in decline." -- Edward Abbey, American writer (1927-1989)

Oystercatchers #84

36" x 48"

Oystercatchers #81

36" x 36"

"Great art is never perfect; perfect art is never great." -- Edward Abbey

Oystercatchers #127

A SLUT FOR OYSTERCATCHERS

Anne Hansen has a crush on oystercatchers, which is why she’s painting them. She’s not slapping paint on the birds themselves, but portraying their likeness on canvas.

These seashore clowns are simultaneously slender, chunky, clumsy and elegant -- lending themselves perfectly to Anne’s cheery, bold style.

“One day I was sitting on the beach at Dallas Road at sunset. Between the sun and me was an oystercatcher, flopping around a hunk of brilliantly back-lit green seaweed in its big, silly red bill.”

This singular experience launched Anne onto an unstoppable creative trajectory. Within a few months, she had spilled forth a cascade of over 70 canvases of oystercatchers, with the Olympic mountains as backdrop. Maybe this isn't surprising, given that she was brought up by birdwatching parents who were environmentalists way before both became fashionable.

"As a naturalist, I am concerned about the fate of our wild coast. The oystercatcher thrives along relatively undisturbed shoreline from Alaska to California. The habitat of countless seashore creatures is threatened by rampant clear-cutting, luxury tourist development, fish farming, and the spectre of oil tankers plying the jagged, shipwrecked Vancouver Island coast," says Anne.

Anne takes pride in the whimsy and freedom that comes with being a self-taught artist. She is a life model, having worked for art classes in Guelph, Ontario, shortly before moving to BC. For 25 years, she was an administrative assistant in Drama and other departments at the University of Toronto. This work suited her perfectly, but a full-time job left little time for art. Anne is also a knitter and urban cyclist.

EXHIBITIONS
(Please see current list, as separate "page" on this blog.  -- A.H. (July 9, 2012)

-- LOOK Victoria Art Show, Community Arts Council of Greater Victoria, Victoria, BC (February 2011)
-- Greater Victoria Public Library, Esquimalt Branch (February-March 2011)
-- Greater Victoria Public Library, Oak Bay Branch (January-June 2011)
-- Tulista Centre, Community Arts Council of the Saanich Peninsula, Sidney, BC (November 2010)
-- Art Sea Festival, Shaw Ocean Discovery Centre, Sidney, BC (October 2010)
-- Greater Victoria Public Library, Oak Bay Branch (September 2010)
-- 1st International Seabird Conference, Birds At Sea group show, Victoria, BC (September 2010)
-- James Bay Art Walk (September 2010)
-- Cycles group art show, Office of Denise Savoie, MP for Victoria (summer 2010)
-- Coast Collective, Colwood, BC, Lighthouse Living group show (July 2010)
-- My Body of Oystercatchers, solo art gallery debut, Victoria, BC (June & July 2010)
-- Oak Bay Marina (April 2010)
-- James Bay Coffee and Books (April 2010)
-- Greater Victoria Public Library, Oak Bay Branch (February 2010)
-- Greater Victoria Public Library, Esquimalt Branch (January 2010)
- Community Arts Council of Greater Victoria, Victoria International Airport lounge (November 2009 - April 2010)
- Artist's Corner, Greater Victoria Public Library, Main Branch (Sept 2009)
- James Bay Art Walk (Sept 5 & 6 2009)
- Greater Victoria Public Library, Oak Bay Branch (mid-Aug to mid-Sept 2009)
- Greater Victoria Public Library, Oak Bay Branch (April - July 2009)
- Sooke Region Museum, Upstairs Gallery (June-July 2009)
- Sooke Harbour House Gallery (from March 2009)
- James Bay Coffee and Books, Victoria BC (March 2009)
- Office of Denise Savoie, MP for Victoria (February-May 2009)
- LOOK Victoria Art Show (February 2009)
- Moka House, Shoal Point, Victoria, BC (September 2009)
- James Bay Coffee and Books, Victoria BC (Mar/Apr 2008)
- First Unitarian Church of Victoria (May-July 2008)
- LOOK Victoria Art Show (February 2008)
- OISIE, and Partisan Gallery, (Toronto, mid 1980s)



photo: Anne Hansen

"Do we want to be remembered as the generation that saved the banks but let the biosphere collapse?" -- George Monbiot