Steve Hanks Streets of New Orleans Giclee Canvas NEW Description New Pre-Release Edition from The Greenwich Workshop *Artist: Steve Hanks. New Pre- Release for late July. 2008! Title: "Streets of New Orleans". * Limited Edition Masterwork "Giclee on Canvas" signed and numbered by the aritst. Limited to a very low edition size of only 75 images worldwide. * Image size is 20" x 45". Mint Condition! This is brand new stock directly from the publisher- Greenwich Workshop Inc. We are an authorized dealer for Greenwich. *Comes complete with all certificates and documentation *Be one of the few clients who can own this piece on canvas! *Because of the oversize nature of this piece, it is shipped rolled in a large tube for your best protection in transit. Thank you. Jim Duff~ Early River Gallery.My Stores Logo Watch The Video! See Steve Hanks talk about the inspiration behind his work at: http://www.greenwichworkshop.com/video/hanks.asp About this piece: "Life has many levels and this painting shows many of them," says artist Steve Hanks. "At the bottom are the people making a living on the street. The next level is the sidewalk, where the couples safely walk the perimeter and share their lives together. The only people on the balcony are an elderly couple who have made it through their life together and are observing everyone else. They have made it to the highest level and I view them with envy and pride. "I was attracted to the wrought iron, the architecture and the overall romance of the city. New Orleans has a character that takes time to absorb." Like the characters who populate it, this lively tribute to one of America's most storied cities will take a lifetime to fully discover and enjoy. Although teachers often cited his artistic ability, Steve Hanks’ main interest while growing up around San Francisco was sports. As a young teenager, Hanks pursued surfing and tennis with passion. He eventually tired of a steady diet of competitive tennis, but continued to surf, finding a spiritual connection with the ocean. “Surfing had a strong influence on my paintings,” he says. “The ocean often appears in my work, because I have such strong feelings for it.” Although it was apparent early on that he had talent, Hanks refused to do the required assignments in his high school art class and earned a grade of C in the class. “To prove I was good, I did a one-man show at the high school and sold my first painting to another art teacher,” he says. After high school Hanks enrolled in summer session commercial art courses at the Academy of Art in San Francisco. “The only way I could convince my parents to let me go was to say I was going into commercial art,” he says. “I didn’t even know what that was!” He did well in his commercial art classes, but it was a life drawing class that captured his interest. He focused his energy on the study of anatomy and figure drawing and transferred into the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland, California. He graduated in the 1960s with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree, and then moved back to New Mexico in search of a home art gallery. Steve Hanks’ paintings are much more than endearing images of women and children. Rather than conveying a specific message through his paintings, Hanks prefers to explore memories and emotions. “All art is an escape to somewhere you want to be or a feeling you want to have," Hanks says. "People see different things in my paintings because we all have different backgrounds and feelings.” Art jurors began recognizing the quality of his work in 1973. Steve Hanks won the Arts for the Parks Marine Art Award of Excellence in 1990 and 1994, and has been one of the Arts for the Parks top 100 artists since 1989. In 1991, Steve Hanks received the National Watercolor Society Merit Award and the National Academy of Western Art awarded him the Gold Medal in 1992. Since 1993, he has been one of U.S. Art Magazine's top ten American artists. When the Pacific Rim show in Seattle, WA decided to open the show up to a wider variety of art in 1999, they selected Steve as Artist of the Year. Steve wasone of five winners selected to the U.S. Art Hall of Fame 2000. He was named as one of the top 25 selling artists in the June, 2002 issue of Decor magazine. The 7th Annual Andre Agassi Grand Slam for Children chose Steve as their Feature Artist in 2002.