Hadley Hutton,
Mixed Media Artist

Hadley grew up in a home filled with color, with a mother who felt that humanity’s greatest invention was the color wheel. Hadley recalls her mom changing wall colors as often as other people change the sheets. Being surrounded by a vivid palette profoundly influenced her. But rather than paint walls, Hadley’s outlet for her hereditary color addiction is her brush. On the day little Hadley met an artist who painted for his profession, she formulated her dream of becoming an artist. Her exact words were, “People get paid to do this?” She soon encountered a major obstacle on the path to realizing her dream: the bunny incident. At the tender age of seven, Hadley was unable to draw a bunny as beautifully as her friend Monica. She threw a Richter-scale tantrum, screaming, “I can’t draw!” Somehow Hadley found the resolve to keep drawing despite the nay-sayers (including, most notably, herself). She continued to draw, and on and on she drew, right through her graduation with honors from the San Francisco Art Institute. Today Hadley lives her dream working as an illustrator and artist in her hometown, Portland, OR - where she has yet to perfect the bunny. Hadley’s work is a blend of traditional painting and modern design. She draws inspiration from Asian patterns and motifs, Victorian die cuts, and geometric designs. Her work explores the beauty and whimsy of nature The paintings typically start with a mono-print printed on an etching press using ink and watercolor pencils. A mono-print is a print made from a plate that can only be printed once (unlike other printing processes where you can create multiples with a plate). The mono-print is sometimes run through an archival digital printing to add geometric elements such as dots, lines or patterns. And finally the print is mounted on wood, then Hadley may choose to wax and carve the print, add oil pastels or oil paints, or perhaps varnish with an acrylic medium. Hadley’s Philosophy: Less is more. (Except in the case of art supplies – where too much is never enough.)