Spotted Hyena Painting

Aimée Rolin Hoover is an American painter who has devoted the past 25 years to exploring animal imagery. Her current body of work explores the vital connection between humans and the healing power of the natural world—a relationship she sees as increasingly important in the face of our digitally dominated, indoor lives. She lives in Palos Verdes, California, and maintains a studio in nearby Torrance. "Encounters with animals—whether approaching a curious horse at a fence line or locking eyes with a wild coyote—have always grounded me in the moment. They grant me access to an internal stillness and a sense of freedom similar to the flow state of creating art itself. I believe this is the superpower of nature and animals: they help us live more squarely in the moments of our own lives. From the simple joy of playing with our dogs after a long day of work, to staring in awe at an African elephant on the Serengeti, animals have the power to remind us where we actually are in the present. My paintings are attempts to hold onto these profound but fleeting moments. And to translate them into a visual language that evokes the same groundedness and emotion in the viewer. My technique is intentionally painterly, gestural, often raw at the edges. I generally resist the confines of strict realism or more traditional wildlife painting in favor of balancing likeness with capturing the energy and emotion of a moment—using my subjects more as portals to channel feeling states like exuberance, serenity, or introspection. In an age when our attention is splintered and our relationship to the natural world is increasingly experienced through screens, honoring nature in my work feels necessary to me. And a life-long endeavor worth pursuing."