‘After the Storm’

When Hannah Cole moved from Brooklyn, New York, to Asheville in 2015, the lush mountains around her had an immediate influence on her work. “The very first thing I did was go out and buy eight new tubes of green paint,” she says. “Nature is everywhere here.” Paintings like her “After the Storm” show nature on its own terms, thriving in urban landscapes.

Hannah remembers first taking an interest in art around age 7, and has been a professional artist for 16 years — first painting in oil, now preferring acrylic. Her favorite part of being an artist is the community of peers she’s formed, both learning from and offering support to other artists. That collaboration recently expanded to the literary world as well; “After the Storm” is featured on the cover of the new paperback version of NC author Ron Rash’s “In the Valley.”