Images of Palouse

Gaylen Hansen described this painting of migrating fish and birds as a “nature fantasy.”  The scene depicts many indigenous plants and animals of the Palouse, the rolling grasslands of western Idaho and eastern Washington.  Along with many trout and geese, Hansen has included a deer, bear, wolf, and magpie in a landscape dotted with syringa, the woody shrub whose white blossoms are the state flower of Idaho.  Inspired by Native American mythology, Hansen also included four human figures costumed as a mountain goat, an elk (holding a stalk of blue camas), a red-headed woodpecker, and a bison.  According to Hansen, these figures in animal costumes “suggest an earlier time and culture linking humans with nature.”

The painting’s bold shapes and colors, complex spatial relationships, overlapping forms, and juxtapositions of various scales all contribute to a dynamic composition that reflects Hansen’s interest in ancient Egyptian art, as well as Indian and Persian miniature painting.  He has said, “I do purposely, intentionally draw and paint the way I do for expressive reasons.”

Originally commissioned for the Moscow Federal Building, the painting was relocated across town to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Moscow Service Center in 2013, when GSA sold the federal building.