Taking the gold road Taking the gold road (October 22, 2004)

Color, geometric shapes dominate Hancock's works

By Katie Vaughn

In a world full of serious issues and mundane responsibilities, it's something of a relief to follow Joan Hancock into the bright, playful scenes she creates in her paintings. Twenty whimsical landscape works add color and interest to the walls of the Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts.

"They're all kind of playing with elements of a garden," Hancock said. "I wanted to create a place I'd like to be."

Hancock, a Palo Alto resident, finds artistic inspiration in her own garden as well as those she visits when traveling. However, she doesn't base her works on a specific place.

Instead, she imagines garden arrangements and often embellishes the geometric forms with fountains, gates, white adobe houses, peacocks, lions and other elements of fantasy.

Working in a straightforward style, Hancock uses acrylic paints in surprisingly vibrant shades, particularly in turquoise, golden yellow, orange and bright pink.

"It's like striking a chord in music," she said. "It's richer."

Hancock also creates smaller works on brass, and alternates between these intricate works and her larger colorful pieces. She garnered attention earlier this year for a folk series she produced on the Stanford family.

An ambitious collection of works made for the Mountain View exhibition is Hancock's "Gold Road" series. The scene depicted continues throughout the six paintings, but each section can stand as its own composition.

Although the five-foot-tall pieces feature different elements such as a lion, gate, fountain, white statues and peacocks, they share the same sea and sky background, colorful fields, white adobe houses and walkway. The continuity almost suggests the painting is the scene of a fable or fairy tale.

"A path is like a story," Hancock said.

One of her earliest colorful works, and also one of her favorites, is "The Fountain," created in 1999. White water sprays from a fountain, an orange road leads to a white house through green fields and blue leaves sit atop a blue tree trunk. Hancock created a second fountain painting just this month, but this piece is more severely geometric, with blocks of plants, two white staircases, another orange road leading to a white house and a purple fountain.

Another sharply delineated painting is "Parcheesi Garden," based on the classic board game. Hancock said she painted it while becoming increasingly interested in symmetry. Indeed, an orange ground, blue and purple plants and green trees form an even grid and surround fish fountain in the center.

Quite different from her other works is her "Blossoms" painting. Made in cooler tones in a more secluded style, Hancock allows viewers to look past dark green and blue leaves with light pink flowers that surround the periphery of the painting. In the center sits a curving Van Gogh-esque blue and pink bench. While a visual departure from her other paintings, Hancock said she created it the same way.

"I started with an element of a garden and then I just played with the space," she said.

E-mail Katie Vaughn at mvvoicearts@yahoo.com

Information

What: Paintings by Joan Hancock

Where: Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro St.

When: Mon.-Fri., noon-1 p.m. and one hour prior to performances at the center. Through Jan 3, 2005.

Cost: Free

Web: www.mvcpa.com

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