Dana Hooper

Out There

9" x 12" oil

"I paint outdoors in a style that is spontaneous and expressive. The motifs are colorist, intimate views of timeless subjects: animals, figures, rustic structures and landscapes.
In my paintings there is often an idiosyncratic element, unexpected details or perspective - the picture may not be logical but it reads right. The paint surface is both thick and thin; the brushwork and palette knife strokes are deliberately visible and sometimes have a rough or unfinished look. Everything reminds you that this is a painting, a fusion of form, color and texture."

Mutual

7" x 9" oil

Twins

6" x 6" oil

Bonded

8" x 10" oil

Dana Hooper is one of the Bay Area's outstanding plein-air artists whose exuberant and colorful style represents all the freshness and spontaneity of working outdoors, directly from a subject.

Spring Horses

11" x 14" oil

"Dana is a strong example of the modern return to plein air painting. Her work is spontaneous and expressive with a striking use of color. She paints intimate views of rural subjects--buildings, animals, landscapes--in a way that portrays their "innocence" and her love of them. I like a sentence she once said to me: 'My works are an escape from gentrification and technology, a respect for the simple.'

"There's a freedom to her brush strokes and I agree with a prominent collector who once told me: 'She's not derivative. She takes the California School (of figurative painting) in a new direction. It's a signature type of work.'"

Bud Johns

Back to the Barn

11" x 14" oil

sold

Education

BA, Biology, San Francisco State University, San Francisco

Master of Science, Physiology, University of California, Davis

Art workshops in Maine and locally with artists

Pam Glover, Chester Arnold, Paul Bridenbaugh,

Stanley Goldstein Randal Sexton and Marcia Burtt.

Collections

Bolinas Museum, Bolinas CA

Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA

the Di Rosa Preserve, Napa, CA

Mark Barrenechea

Michael Ondaatje, Toronto

Oracle, Redwood Shores, CA

Morgan Flagg Collection, Atherton, CA

Marin General Hospital, Greenbrae, CA

Private collections nationwide and Europe

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Dana's solo exhibit, September 2001, William Lester Gallery