I first decided to travel to wine country after seeing the movie Sideways in 2010. At this time in my artistic career, I wasn’t painting any man-made objects–I only wanted to focus on natural forms in the landscape (particularly forms like rocks and cliffs that I could try to climb!) The first dawn I woke up in Paso Robles, I instantly threw my rules of “never painting man-made objects” out the door. The morning was cool and green all around me, with glistening dew thickly covering the quiet land. Misty clouds slowly rose from the ground, parting here and there to let the sunshine illuminate a hillside here, a tree branch there.

The first things I wanted to paint were the rickety wooden fences that lined the twisting, winding country roads. These old fences found their way into most of my early paintings of California wine country.

Movement at Paso by Erin Hanson

The other man-made objects I started painting were the winding roads themselves. I loved how these little back country roads would dip and turn and disappear around one bend, only to appear again winding between two hills in the distance. In Paso, the roads often dive down towards a deep riverbank thickly covered in oak trees, and you will be completely enveloped by a dark and dense forest for a mile or so, before rising back out again into the sunshine. These tree-lined roads have inspired many paintings over the years, including my famous “Path” series. I even got inspired to paint a cow (yes, I painted a cow! See if you can find it on my website.)

Vineyard Way by Erin Hanson, 2016

I painted 140 paintings of wine country before I tried my hand at painting an actual vineyard. These first 140 pieces inspired by wine country were paintings of rolling hills, winding roads, broken fences, and ancient oak trees. This was my first love affair with wine country. When I finally started incorporating vineyards into my wine country paintings, I was hooked. (The first painting I created featuring vineyards was Wine Country II, in 2015.) I became enamored by the way the light hit the sides of the grapevines, adding texture and contour to the hillsides. While the vines were planted in man-made rows, I still felt that I was capturing nature at its most beautiful, which is my entire goal of painting.

Wine Country II by Erin Hanson, 2015