HANNAH HANLON

DRAWING FROM NATURE

Hannah Hanlon brings both technical precision and a deeply contemporary eye to her practice. Known for pushing the limits of colored pencil and India ink, she creates compositions of remarkable saturation, delicacy, and visual complexity, all inspired by the beauty of the natural world. Working from photographic and video reference, as well as cuttings and pinned insect specimens, Hanlon transforms close observation into works that feel at once scientific, decorative, and deeply alive. Works featured in Nature Studies are a collection of pieces from 3 separate series of Hanlon’s drawings. 

Busy, Busy is a whimsical piece in her Southeastern series, a body of non-traditional botanical drawings, which combine multiple species into complex and highly-designed compositions, driven by texture, color and pattern. A selection of 8 contemporary floral crops are part of the series You Are Here, a body of work created during Hanlon’s recovery from spinal surgery. Most of these 4x4 inch works were drawn while reclined in bed with a lap desk, and the reference images were taken during her rehabilitation walks following surgery. This series documents moments of Hanlon’s physical recovery coinciding with the arrival of spring.  Part of her Coleoptera Chroma series, Colossus 1 and Colossus 2, are Hanlon’s largest illustrations to date in an ongoing series of over 50 beetle drawings. This collection began as a means to document and celebrate the incredible biodiversity of beetles and their often overlooked beauty, and features highly saturated, complex, often reflective surfaces and details.

With a BFA and graduate studies in design, Hanlon’s meticulously detailed illustration pushes the bounds of both colored pencil and India ink in complex and contemporary compositions. Known for her ability to capture detail and create intense saturation with colored pencil, Hanlon’s work is inspired by the beauty of the natural world, color and pattern. Hanlon works from photographic and video reference as well as cuttings and pinned insect specimens. Born and raised outside of Boston, Hanlon relocated to Atlanta for graduate school. She works out of her Atlanta home studio.