Annette Hassell

I grew up in the wonderfully spooky city of New Orleans. While other kids were running about in the fresh air,  I remained huddled inside - avidly reading any fantasies or fairy tales that I could find, and then trying to illustrate what I had just read. I fell in love with the work of  the classic illustrators of children's literature. Rackham, Detmold, Dulac, Nielsen, and Tenniel put faces to the characters that I loved in all the old stories.

 I continued to practice drawing, though my efforts back then consisted mainly of ballpoint pen renderings of mermaids, fairies, and Tolkein characters. Finally, I went to college and got some lessons at  the University of New Orleans. I learned to paint there, and in 1986 I received a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree . 

 Immediately after graduation, I began working as a Mardi Gras float painter and designer. While I worked on my own paintings here and there, I didn't really decide on what it was that I wanted to paint until I moved to Los Angeles in 1996, and I started painting rather unconventional still lifes. Lately, I've become much more interested in painting animals and humans…especially magical ones, but I do still dearly love a still life-or what passes for one in my world.

 I reside in Los Angeles now and I have transitioned from freelancing as a scenic artist for theater, television and film to working every minute that I can manage on my personal artwork, telling those stories, and enjoying the freedom to paint whatever I want.