Making waves: Moses Lake artist builds popularity with her water paintings

MOSES LAKE — As Grant County Fair patrons made their way through the various venues and event buildings last week at the Grant County Fairgrounds, many might have stumbled upon a booth in the Commercial Building filled with paintings of water with waves crashing, or ripples of water glimmering in the sunlight.

Artist Hannah Fountain, of Moses Lake, showcased her work at the fair last week for the first time, which was another step in the progression of her artwork that has taken off in the past few years. As a lifelong lover of art, seeing the positive response to her work has been very rewarding, she said.

Fountain said she’s loved to create and draw since she could first hold a pencil.

“I started doodling on everything and drawing,” Fountain said. “All through school and all through college, all of my schoolwork had some sort of scenic addition to it.”

She said she got used to teachers asking her politely to stop drawing mustaches on all of the presidents in her books in school. At an early age, she said she entered drawings into the fair and won quite a few prizes. At age 15, she applied for a grant for her artwork, which she was awarded, but she said she didn’t really have quite the motivation at the time to take it as far as she wanted.

She said she’s dabbled in various mediums and didn’t really find her niche with painting until about 10 years ago. After graduating from college and starting her family, Fountain said she started to pick her paintbrushes up a little more, while spending time at home when her three kids were young.

As her collection of artwork began to pile up, Fountain said she decided to start showing at coffee shops and other small venues while living in the Tacoma area. As her kids got older and started to have lives of their own in the past three years, she started to branch out into presenting her work at more galleries and art events.

She said she sets up a booth for her work each week at the Moses Lake Farmers Market and has shown art at other local events, as well as Spring Fest. Fountain said she’ll be at Michael’s Market & Bistro, 221 W. Broadway Ave., Sept. 18 for the Moses Lake Sip & Stroll event.

She said there is very much a focus on water and movement in water, with the ocean her favorite thing to paint.

“I get the most enjoyment out of it. Also, I think that most everyone has some sort of good memories connected to trips to the ocean or the beach as a kid,” Fountain said. “So I focus a lot on the ocean and then I’ll also have some lakes and just water in general.”

Fountain works with acrylic paints, typically on canvas, but occasionally works on wood panels. She said she focuses a lot on realism in her artwork with “a pop of magic.” She said she likes her paintings to be very realistic, but have some of the fluidity and ambiguous movement that can’t quite be captured in a photo.

She said she will often reference photographs while painting, studying the image to help capture the realism in the light and texture.

“Sometimes if you’re pulling too much out of your own mind, you lose that realism because you’re not seeing what’s actually happening with the sun and the sky and the water,” Fountain said.

One of the biggest challenges and something she’s still learning is trying not to “jump the gun” and get to the end result of a painting too quickly, she said. Understanding the layering of water, what’s beneath the water and what’s showing through each layer up to the surface is key. Fountain said she still feels she has a long way to go as an artist in this aspect.

Color-wise, she said there are inevitably plenty of shades of blue and green in her artwork, but she also tries to incorporate a lot of other colors. She said water can reflect anything, including the reds and oranges of a sunset or the yellow of the sun piercing through a wave.

She said she’ll occasionally break from her norm and craft something besides water, but will always find herself wanting to go back and just paint another crashing wave.

“For now, that’s my thing,” Fountain said.

Fountain said she follows a lot of artists on Instagram for reference, including classic artists like Thomas Kinkade and more modern artists who work a lot with water, such as Javier Torices and Andrew Tischler.

As she’s presenting her artwork at more venues, Fountain said she feels extremely blessed and grateful to have positive responses to her artwork. Before she started presenting at art shows and galleries, she said she’d never sold a painting for more than $50.

Now, she’s sold pieces for as much as $2,000. Fountain said she was concerned at first there might not be a market for her artwork in such a small community like Moses Lake. But, she said she’s found a lot of people who are excited to embrace and support a local artist.

Fountain said she had a great response at the Grant County Fair this year, especially on the final day. She said she’s not sure if she’ll be back next year yet, as she continues to figure out what venues work best for her.

To check out Hannah Fountain’s artwork, visit her Instagram page at hannah_fountain_art.