Read this Wildlife Art Journal article

By Charles Finn

Not long ago, I secretly left a picture book of Gaylen Hansen’s paintings on a table in a small coffee shop where I live in Bend, Oregon. For reasons of my own, I wanted to see peoples’ reactions.

Hansen is the 89-year-old Neo-Expressionist from Palouse, Washington, famous for his over-sized grasshoppers, incongruous ducks and dog heads, and a diminutive cowboy figure the unflappable seeker Hansen calls “the Kernal.” Without exception, the response to the book was curious delight. There was an immediate and positive response to the images, as well as a good deal of amused laughter. More surprising was the friendly deconstruction that followed, often quite insightful, and this from people who were not frequent viewers of fine art. What I discovered is people were not only finding joy in the work, but thinking about it from a bemused, contemporary and non-judgmental point of view. Having spoken with Hansen in his studio the week before, I knew this is exactly the kind of response he was shooting for.



Kernal with Maroon Sofa
Oil on Canvas | 60 x 84 inches | photo: Jens Selvig


On the day I met Hansen, he greeted me in cotton pants, sneakers, a fire-engine red fleece and black fleece cap with tufts of white hair sprouting out from underneath it. It was like encountering a 3-D Kernal with rimless glasses and a wardrobe change. After pleasantries, Hansen escorted me to his...