In both the bold colors of his acrylic paintings and his immersion in the creative process, saturation is the key to Brent Hanson’s art, so that’s what he’s calling his solo show next month at the Harbor Village Gallery in Ventura.

“The works in this show range from surrealism to expressionist to nonrepresentational abstraction. One commonality about my work is the intensity of color — ‘Saturation,’ if you will,” he says.

The exhibition will open May 2 and be up through May 28, with an opening reception planned from 5-8 p.m. May 4.

Hanson, an Oxnard resident, is a financial planner who says, “It took the recent recession to wake me up to there being more to life than work, though I love it, too.”

As a teen he liked to draw, a talent his mother nurtured with private art classes, but Hanson says he put the paintbrushes aside in favor of pursuing an education, then a career. Thirty-nine years later, the economic downturn slowed his work, and that led Hanson back to a familiar path.

“I felt something was missing from my life and recalled how painting made me feel, so I began taking classes again,” he says.

One of his mentors, painter Robert Burridge, had devised a color wheel and palette based on the color principles of inkjet printers that Hanson also uses because, he says, “it tends to help make my paintings ‘pop.’” He paints nights and weekends in his home studio, “mostly from my imagination, dreams and emotions, but with an occasional photograph or a variety of types of music as inspiration.” His art can be found online at www.brenthansonstudio.com.

The Harbor Village Gallery is located at 1591 Spinnaker Dr. Suite 117C in the Ventura Harbor Village. Open everyday except Tuesday from 12 to 5 pm. For more information, call the gallery at 805-644-2750 or visit www.BuenaventuraGallery.org for more information.