CHRIS HOLLEY: Statement
An abstract/figurative painter working mainly from memory and imagination, Chris's vivid and expressive paintings are underpinned by strong drawing skills and a sure sense of line. Her visual art relates - directly or indirectly, consciously or subconsciously - to elements of dance and music which, due to her deep involvement with these two vibrant arts, are part of her mental make-up and psyche. Think composition, colour, contrast, texture, rhythm, pattern - all apply to art, dance and music, endlessly feeding her creative impetus.
Working in acrylic and oil, she also uses household emulsion, scratching and carving into the rich paint surface. She works big when possible and now mostly bypasses paintbrushes in favour of sponges, cloths, sticks and her hands, plus other studio artifacts to make the more unexpected mark. Disliking the confines of a set-size canvas, she paints on unstretched canvas, later cropping the image to exact size and area. Once painting, she moves canvas from floor - where paint is poured, sprayed, puddled and merged and then, when dry - back to easel to paint in the vertical. Frenetic and physical, this makes for wide ranging, interesting marks.
Linking all Chris’s visual art is rhythm and flow. And now, coming to an end is her Rhythmical Horizons series of paintings, based on the pure abstraction of small random marks she first made as colour experiments, then amplifying and scaling them up into gradually larger images on paper and canvas. Taking forward this new development in her abstract language, she is now starting work on the first of a series of abstract paintings expressing the feelings and memories evoked in her many travels in Andalusia studying flamenco - memories made all the more poignant and precious by the current Covid straightjacket.
An abstract/figurative painter working mainly from memory and imagination, Chris's vivid and expressive paintings are underpinned by strong drawing skills and a sure sense of line. Her visual art relates - directly or indirectly, consciously or subconsciously - to elements of dance and music which, due to her deep involvement with these two vibrant arts, are part of her mental make-up and psyche. Think composition, colour, contrast, texture, rhythm, pattern - all apply to art, dance and music, endlessly feeding her creative impetus.
Working in acrylic and oil, she also uses household emulsion, scratching and carving into the rich paint surface. She works big when possible and now mostly bypasses paintbrushes in favour of sponges, cloths, sticks and her hands, plus other studio artifacts to make the more unexpected mark. Disliking the confines of a set-size canvas, she paints on unstretched canvas, later cropping the image to exact size and area. Once painting, she moves canvas from floor - where paint is poured, sprayed, puddled and merged and then, when dry - back to easel to paint in the vertical. Frenetic and physical, this makes for wide ranging, interesting marks.
Linking all Chris’s visual art is rhythm and flow. And now, coming to an end is her Rhythmical Horizons series of paintings, based on the pure abstraction of small random marks she first made as colour experiments, then amplifying and scaling them up into gradually larger images on paper and canvas. Taking forward this new development in her abstract language, she is now starting work on the first of a series of abstract paintings expressing the feelings and memories evoked in her many travels in Andalusia studying flamenco - memories made all the more poignant and precious by the current Covid straightjacket.