Dana Hooper

Dana Hooper is one of the Bay Area's outstanding plein-air artists whose exuberant and colorful style represents all the freshness and spontaneity of working outdoors, directly from a subject.

"I paint outdoors in a style that is spontaneous and expressive. The motifs are colorist, intimate views of timeless subjects: animals, figures, rustic structures and landscapes. In my paintings there is often an idiosyncratic element, unexpected details or perspective - the picture may not be logical but it reads right. The paint surface is both thick and thin; the brushwork and palette knife strokes are deliberately visible and sometimes have a rough or unfinished look. Everything reminds you that this is a painting, a fusion of form, color and texture." – Dana Hooper

"Dana is a strong example of the modern return to plein air painting. Her work is spontaneous and expressive with a striking use of color. She paints intimate views of rural subjects--buildings, animals, landscapes--in a way that portrays their "innocence" and her love of them. I like a sentence she once said to me: 'My works are an escape from gentrification and technology, a respect for the simple.' There's a freedom to her brush strokes and I agree with a prominent collector who once told me: 'She's not derivative. She takes the California School (of figurative painting) in a new direction. It's a signature type of work.'" - Bud Johns

http://www.danahooper.com/