The bold contours and earthy, autumnal tones highlighted with watered down hues of blues, pinks and turquoises captured the eye of my inner (wannabe) boho-hippie. First stumbling upon Hannah Adamaszek’s work on Instagram after a trip to the Californian desert for Coachella music festival, I was immediately pulled into a dreamy reverie of my time there. I’m sure it wasn’t just the good times at the festival and my crush on the Los Angeles lifestyle in general that resulted in my fondness for Hannah’s work though.
Hannah seems to meld together the perfect rainbow of colours -sometimes bright, sometimes neutral, with her stunning stencilled female portraits and charcoal details tying them all together. Her pieces take you far away into a land of beauty, peace and no-worries. It's obvious that Native Americans have influenced her style, adding to her themes of freedom, travel and being at one with nature.
After chatting to Hannah and hearing the path she has taken to where she is now, creating these artworks, I’m sure there is a sense of her newfound peace channeled into her work.
Hannah fell out of love with art, painting and all things creative during her time at university. Growing up as a creative, with a father who painted, Hannah was always drawing or making something. However the rules and regulations of university, and the challenge in finding a course that suited exactly what she wanted, resulted in Hannah putting down the paintbrush for a number of years.
“I wasn’t feeling the connection to it, I just didn’t want to do it anymore” - I’m sure most can relate to the reaction of being told what you can and can’t do with your work, this was exactly the case with Hannah’s painting.
After taking time to figure out what she wanted to do and travelling for a number of years through various parts of the world, including Austria, Switzerland and Australia, Hannah returned home and ended up in an office job. Hannah sat behind a desk for 5 or 6 years before finally realising her true calling and returning to her easel.
Initially, it was just as a hobby while she was still working full time. However it wasn’t long before Hannah's social media gained momentum and she started getting involved with small group shows. Completely shocked at the success she was seeing, Hannah quit her day job after all her work sold in a group show and she was asked to do a solo show in London at Curious Duke Gallery. Hannah recognises that she needed to break from painting to realise it was what she really wanted to do, and to find the inspiration she needed to run with it.
From here, Hannah's success has soared, being involved with various other shows and her second solo show at Fousion Gallery in Barcelona, and I only see her future getting brighter. Hannah thanks social media for much of her success, but we all know you have to have something good for people to like it! Not only painting on canvases, Hannah has branched out into street and live painting, literally painting whatever she can get her hands on, from walls to tiles to an old chest of drawers. She tells me how she’s always willing to try new things and definitely up for a challenge, we like the sound of that here at Gather.ly!
I can’t wait to see where Hannah’s work takes her next, ideally she wants to find spaces to paint, the bigger the better, and she has to get on with more paintings because right now they’re selling like hot cakes! With a twinkle in her eye she tells me she’d love to head to America, in particular LA, to host an exhibition – and suddenly our story comes full circle, my interpretation is her inspiration.
Keep an eye out for Hannah’s work around London, it could be on a street near you soon! In the meantime, find her on her website, Facebook and Instagram and brighten up your winter with a piece of her work, go on, treat yourself.
