Two Perth galleries have invited Colin Hanssen to exhibit with them. Not bad for a 31-year-old who discovered his painting skill only six months ago.
Hanssen lives with cerebral palsy and is largely non-verbal. From his wheelchair, he paints abstract works with his right hand. He's preparing a collection for a possible showing in the city after holding his first exhibition at his rural studio in Redmond, on the outskirts of Albany, and earning a place on this year's Southern Art and Craft Trail.
A Talent Found, A Market Responds
No grant program or government initiative prompted the interest. The work did. His mother, Wendy Hanssen, said two artists from different Perth galleries asked whether Colin would exhibit with them. "We're going to look at getting a series done," she said.
That's a notable endorsement. Gallery owners and working artists don't hand out invitations out of charity. They consider whether the work will bring visitors, and art therapist Serena McLaughlan said it does. Visitors, she said, were drawn to the paintings and interested in their story and process.
Hanssen joins painting with performance, using colourful and earthy tones to express his lived experience. McLaughlan has worked with him since he began painting and helped curate the exhibition collection. She said much of the art draws on his time living in Africa. "Engaging with vast expanses of landscape is a lived experience that comes through in the painting," she said.
Family at the Centre
This is a story about family persistence as much as an artist's talent. Wendy Hanssen said a neurosurgeon told the family to love Colin while they had him because he wasn't expected to reach his first birthday.
"Colin's first birthday came and went, and we knew that we were clearly on the right track," she said. "Thirty-one years later, he's still with us, beating the odds left, right and centre."
The discovery came in an art therapy class about six months ago. "That was when it was brought home that actually this could be an outlet for Colin," Wendy Hanssen said. "This could potentially be his voice."
The source doesn't say exactly when the class took place, beyond that rough timeframe. But the pace since has been striking: a first exhibition, a place on a regional trail, and now interest from the capital.
Expression Beyond Words
For someone largely non-verbal, painting offers something speech can't. McLaughlan put it plainly. "It's the power of art to talk of his lived experience and his stories over words," she said. "Art is pre-verbal — drawing, music and dance is all before words."
Hanssen paints with one hand, from a wheelchair, in a rural studio. There's no elaborate infrastructure behind it. His family backed him, a therapist recognised his potential, and a regional arts trail selected his work on its merits.
Why This Matters:
Hanssen's story shows what can happen when families, community-based support and open creative markets do the heavy lifting. Nobody mandated this outcome. His family stayed committed, an art therapist spotted something real, and Perth gallery artists judged the work worth showing. That's bottom-up opportunity: people living with disability can contribute something, rather than be seen only as recipients of services. Whether a Perth exhibition will happen is still undecided, and the family says only that it will look at producing a series. But the early signs suggest that when talent meets an audience willing to engage on its terms, results follow without a program engineering them.