Creating joyful, eye catching images about people, places and nature for both adult and children. Hannah Maia creates custom illustrations for individuals, editorial and businesses.
Hannah Maia uses a combination of digital, paper collage and mixed media illustration. She particularly enjoys paper cut collage and painted papers which encourages a loose and spontaneous starting point; a broad perspective concerned with overall shapes and composition before adding light, shade, texture and detail. Hannah Maia often uses collage and mixed media as a way of physically showing layers and exposing her ways of working. She uses both found and self painted collage papers in gouache or acrylic. The splatters and movement of the painted paper creates accidental or unintended ‘flubs’ which often enhance the final work.
Hannah Maia is based in the Lake District, Cumbria, where she is very lucky to work from her studio overlooking rolling hills and fells. ‘The Lakes’ is overcast and drizzling much of the time which means the light can appear radiant, dazzling and much appreciated when it eventually arrives. Hannah Maia uses a bright and colourful palette which allows her work to be joyful and eye-catching.
As an award winning filmmaker with a background in film production much of Hannah Maia’s creativity has often involved working digitally, (her work can be found at Maia Media), so working in mixed media illustration enables her to engage artistically in a non digital medium and away from screens which she finds very rewarding.
Hannah Maia’s work is often about her relationship with the land, lakes and mountain tarns of the Lake District; her responses to being in a particular place. She is also very interested in people and character driven narratives. She studied both social and visual anthropology at university which means she’s interested in society as a collective bunch of humans and the things which make us both uniquely different and wonderfully the same.
Hannah Maia is also a mother, outdoor lover, swift spotter, cyclist and a cold water swimmer. Keep up to date with the latest happenings by signing up to the newsletter or occasionally she will add news to the updates page.
A few of Hannah’s illustrations are available in her Maia Media shop as art prints, greeting cards and ornaments.
