Hanna Rose was born in regional Victoria and has always had a passion for art and design. As a student Hanna took great interest and studied the American Expressionist movement of the 1940’s and 50’s and has always been deeply inspired by abstract art founders – in particular, Willem de Kooning and female pioneers Grace Hartigan and Joan Mitchell. Their intuitive style and the impression of spontaneity resonates strongly for Hanna, so too their use of colour to express emotion.
Hnana is particularly interested in how environments make us feel and specifically, moments and places that bring comfort and how that can imprint on our memory. Hanna’s passion for yoga has influenced this latest body of work. “I began to use the figures for compositional guidance/structure. Sometimes the figures are completely hidden, other times, there are obscured body parts emerging from the painting. The obscured figures also invite the view to question what they represent and I like to encourage this engagement with my work.”