Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten, after Arvo Part (detail) oil and sparkly bits on canvas, 91x61cm (36x24")
CHRIS HOLLEY: Statement
An abstract/figurative painter with a dance and choreographic background, working mainly from memory and imagination, Chris Holley's vivid and expressive paintings are underpinned by strong drawing skills and sure sense of line, her visual art seeming to reside where the arts intersect. No surprise then that she studied Diaghilev's Ballets Russes' astonishing impact on - and contribution across - all the arts, her writings on the subject now held in the National Library of Art in London's Victoria and Albert Museum, as well as with major arts bodies here and overseas. She exhibits regularly in the UK, her art also in collections in the USA and Spain.
In her art practice she works in acrylic and oil plus household emulsion, scratching and carving into the rich paint surface. Working big when possible she mostly uses 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 primes her own canvas, paints it unstretched, later cropping the image to exact size and area. When painting, she moves canvas from floor - where paint is poured, sprayed, puddled and merged and when dry - back to easel to paint in the vertical. Frenetic and physical, this makes for wide ranging and interesting marks.
Sensing new forms of social exchange and dialogue between the arts following their long and imposed lockdown silence, she believes we are now seeing a flowering of all the arts in recognition of - and relating to - each other and is taking a leading role to help make this happen in ambitious project Feeling the Beat at South Hill Park Arts Centre, Bracknell. This absorbing involvement also moves her forward in her visual abstract language.
An abstract/figurative painter with a dance and choreographic background, working mainly from memory and imagination, Chris Holley's vivid and expressive paintings are underpinned by strong drawing skills and sure sense of line, her visual art seeming to reside where the arts intersect. No surprise then that she studied Diaghilev's Ballets Russes' astonishing impact on - and contribution across - all the arts, her writings on the subject now held in the National Library of Art in London's Victoria and Albert Museum, as well as with major arts bodies here and overseas. She exhibits regularly in the UK, her art also in collections in the USA and Spain.
In her art practice she works in acrylic and oil plus household emulsion, scratching and carving into the rich paint surface. Working big when possible she mostly uses 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 primes her own canvas, paints it unstretched, later cropping the image to exact size and area. When painting, she moves canvas from floor - where paint is poured, sprayed, puddled and merged and when dry - back to easel to paint in the vertical. Frenetic and physical, this makes for wide ranging and interesting marks.
Sensing new forms of social exchange and dialogue between the arts following their long and imposed lockdown silence, she believes we are now seeing a flowering of all the arts in recognition of - and relating to - each other and is taking a leading role to help make this happen in ambitious project Feeling the Beat at South Hill Park Arts Centre, Bracknell. This absorbing involvement also moves her forward in her visual abstract language.