Known for his realistic oil paintings of intricate structures and gritty odes to Americana—including the beloved bison that have long adorned The Ritz-Carlton Bachelor Gulch’s Buffalos restaurant—Denver-based artist Jared Hankins has been pursuing a new subject matter: iconic mountains and ski lines.
“I’ve always been a skier and I thought it would be fun to paint from this perspective and capture angles that aren’t typical,” the Colorado native says.
Taking cues from the silver and sepia tones of early photos of the American West, Hankins works with a palette that emphasizes the contrast between rock and snow, using extensive knife work to push each peak’s unique chutes and cornices into “almost abstract shapes where you have highlights contrasting stark depths and textures,” he explains. “The intention is to make the scene feel real, but as the viewer steps closer, the painterly quality becomes clear.”
