Hazel’s Mexico Watercolors

Opens May 9, 2025

These watercolors reflect Hazel Hannell’s time living in Ajijic, Mexico, where she stayed during winters in the 1980s with fellow artists Harriet Rex Smith, Jan Sullivan, and Elizabeth Murray. The new location provides new subject matter and new landscape to her work, though both her paintings from Indiana and Mexico share a particular focus on nature and architecture. Hazel’s style became bolder and looser in her older age with stronger colors than her earlier watercolors. The range of these pieces—from dark, moody mountains with splashes of red to more abstract, bright flowers—also makes this era stand out. Each piece, though, is still distinctly Hazel’s: the brush strokes and the particular manner of painting the sky, trees, and flowers are typical Hazel watercolor traits in otherwise atypical works for her.

While these works are not representative of her life’s work, they display an important period in her life that is worth acknowledging.

About the Robert Cain Gallery

The Robert Cain Gallery honors M. Robert “Rob” Cain (1930-2022), a lifelong Valparaiso resident and beloved Valparaiso High School art teacher. In 2014, Cain participated in the dedication of the Robert Cain Gallery in our former location at 153 Franklin Street in Valparaiso. The naming was made possible by a special gift from Joanne & Dan Urschel, whose family members were inspired by Cain from their time in his classroom.