Gallery > Staghorn

One of the best known of the North American sumacs is the Staghorn Sumac. It grows from southern Canada to Georgia and Mississippi. It is an attractive flat-topped tree, growing 30 to 35 feet high. The tree bears small, greenish flowers and tiny red berries. Its fernlike leaves are velvety dark green above and pale beneath. In autumn, the leaves turn scarlet, orange and purple. The forked branches of immature trees have a velvety down. The berry clusters and leaf-stalks are hairy.

Cohoctah
mixed media on bristol
19x19"
2007
Diversion
mixed media on bristol
19x19"
2007
Huronland Vespers for Ann Mikolowski
mixed media on bristol
19x19"
2007
Overpass Monday
mixed media on bristol
19x19"
2007
Private (Property) for Alex Katz
mixed media on bristol
19x19"
2007
Fountain of Youth
for Richard Diebenkorn
mixed media on bristol
19x19"
2007
Shoreline
mixed media on bristol
19x19"
2007
Spring Felt
mixed media on bristol
19x19"
2007
Water Gap
mixed media on bristol
19x19"
2007
Assessment for Georg Vihos
mixed media on bristol
19x19"
2007
Cold Snap
mixed media on bristol
19x19"
2007
Western Tanager
mixed media on bristol
19x19"
2007
Component
mixed media on bristol
19x19"
2007
Interchange
mixed media on bristol
19x19"
2007
Natural History
mixed media on bristol
19x19"
2007
Quagmire
mixed media on bristol
19x19"
2007
Sanctuary
mixed media on bristol
19x19"
2007
Seasonal
mixed media on bristol
19x19"
2007
Staghorn
mixed media on bristol
19x19"
2007
True North
mixed media on bristol
19x19"
2007
Woodland Estate
mixed media on bristol
19x19"
2007
Bayfield Project
mixed media on plywood
2006
Long Island Study III
mixed media on canvas
10x8"
2007
Long Island Study II
mixed media on canvas
10x8"
2007
Long Island Study I
mixed media on canvas
8x10"
2007

Matthew Hanna is an intuitive colorist whose heavy application of deeply colored pigment, clotted blood-red on trees and dripping deep-brown down branches, are reminiscent of the Post-impressionists or German expressionists. They also have an illusory Old and New World effect, as if they could easily be seen on stained glass in a European chapel, or in the window of a hot Manhattan gallery in the 1950s. Because of this, there’s a sense of permanence in his abstract scenes. Forget looking at them; you want to live forever in them.

-Rebecca Mazzei
Arts and Culture Editor Metro Times