Bored Panda reached out to Barry Hazard to learn more about his artistic journey, creative inspirations, and the unique process behind his nature-infused sculptural paintings.
The artist shared that art was always the one thing he was really good at. "When I was a kid, I would draw semi-fictional landscapes and realistic portraits of friends and family as gifts. I remember people being really impressed with my art skills, and so I leaned heavily on it. By the time I got to art school, I knew that art was what I would be doing the rest of my life, and I would just build a world around that dream."
Hazard created his first sculpture painting a long time ago at the Museum School in Boston. "I added wood to a flat panel and built a landscape coming out of the wall. I remember my instructor was a little confused and disappointed. He said, 'This is a sculpture class, you need to decide if you are a sculptor or a painter. This is neither.' I was kind of dejected, but I always had that sculpture painting on my mind. It took me 30 years to have the confidence to return to the idea, and I think I continue to improve on it."
Nature serves as the primary inspiration for Hazard’s work. "I am especially interested in archetypes of beauty, like sunsets, mountain ranges, forests, and bodies of water. I am also curious about the human relationship to nature, both good and bad. I definitely do not have the answers to our environmental issues, but I am obsessed with them."
Hazard works in an intuitive way, letting the process guide him. "I will reflect on an idea, like when it invites me," he says. "I love studies, and I try to approach a subject like a student, curious about its meaning and what it could look like as a sculpture painting.
After I have the rough idea and scale, I will choose a frame, and then make a final loose study on very thick paper that fits the frame, but can be bent and projected out.
Once I have the frame, shape, and idea roughly worked out, I start to build. I use a wood panel in the frame, and then plywood to build the picture out. I will use lots of modeling paste and plaster to make a seamless transition between the vertical painting surface and the sculpted projection.
I am a carpenter by trade, so the building part comes naturally. I try to see the picture as we see the landscape in reality. The foreground comes towards you as the horizon recedes. It's kind of literal, but when you build it out that way, it becomes a strange new perspective."
