Hannah Wardlow

Hannah Wardlow (b. 2003) is a painter from Cincinnati, Ohio. Wardlow will be receiving a B.F.A. in painting from Northern Kentucky University in spring 2026. She has received the EDGE award for outstanding grades every year since she started college and received the Hyde Park Art Show scholarship for this fall semester. Wardlow creates works featuring flora, fauna, and the feminine form, with themes of the macabre, connected with her firsthand experiences, and stories. She addresses the connections between the natural and human world and how they affect each other in both positive and negative lights. Currently, Wardlow has a teaching assistantship for Painting 1 at Northern Kentucky University helping Professor Kevin Muente. Wardlow is planning her graduate show for this coming spring, currently titled Last Words focusing on oppressive comments towards women.

I am a painter that examines the themes flora, fauna, and the macabre, through the exploration of color and texture using acrylic paint with techniques of oil painting. I enjoy investigating the emotional impact color can have in a piece as well as using exaggeration to further push the mood or expression of my subject matter. My work is inspired by the Art Neuveux period, particularly the illustrator Alfonz Mucha, and more Pop-Art influences like Roy Lichtenstein. I examine Mucha’s use of composition, symbolism, and stylistic line work while I focus on Lichtenstein's use of color, pattern, and emotion. I enjoy using animals as subjects in my work as I feel that they can be symbolic of different emotions, people, or events I want to convey. They allow me to exaggerate the expressions of fear, anger, disgust, etc. while keeping an air of mystique with it being a non-human face. To me the act of painting is like flowing water, transforming each brush stroke into the emotions I’m pouring into every piece. Dancing between the lines of realism and stylistic exaggerating is something I enjoy within each piece. Using a playful stylization of brush strokes and using a vivid color palette for the subject creates a sense of light-heartedness, while the gory actions of the subject being painted more realistically creates a sense of unease throughout my work.