L'artiste canadienne Holly Friesen est née en Saskatchewan. Elle a étudié les arts visuels au John Abbott College de Montréal, puis la peinture à l'université York de Toronto. Après de nombreuses années passées à voyager et à se former, elle s'est installée à Mont-Tremblant, au Québec, où elle a ouvert l'ArtBeat Studio, dans lequel elle a peint et enseigné pendant 15 ans. Pendant quatre étés, Holly a occupé les fonctions de directrice artistique et de conservatrice de The Art Barn à Mont-Tremblant. Pendant trois ans, elle a travaillé comme conservatrice à Montréal pour ArtBomb, une vente aux enchères d’art quotidienne en ligne mettant en avant des artistes canadiens et leurs œuvres. L’atelier actuel de l’artiste est situé à Tiohtià:ke / Montréal (Québec) et ses peintures font partie de collections internationales, tant d’entreprises que de particuliers. Holly se passionne pour la peinture de paysages éclatants, qu’elle aborde de l’intérieur, tout en collaborant avec d’autres artistes afin de rendre l’art plus visible dans notre quotidien. Plus récemment, elle a élargi sa pratique pour y inclure la laine et d’autres fibres, transformant les images et les thèmes de ses peintures en tentures murales artisanales de grande taille.
Canadian artist Holly Friesen was born in Saskatchewan, studied Visual Arts at John Abbott College in Montreal and painting at York University in Toronto. After many years of travel and study she settled in Mont-Tremblant, QC and opened ArtBeat Studio where she painted and taught for 15 years. Four summer seasons saw Holly as artistic director and curator of The Art Barn in Mont-Tremblant. For three years she worked as the Montreal curator for the daily online art auction ArtBomb which featured Canadian artists and their artwork. The artist’s current studio is based out of Tiohtià:ke / Montreal QC and her paintings are collected internationally as part of both corporate and private collections. Holly’s passion is painting vibrant landscapes from the inside out while collaborating with other artists to make art more visible in our everyday world. More recently, she has expanded her practice to include wool and other fibres, transforming imagery and themes from her paintings into large-scale hand-crafted wall hangings.
Statement
My work revolves around earth-honouring images that reflect and instil connection to local bioregions. These images internalize a reverence for the earth and shift the intent from harming the world to living in a mutually life enhancing manner.
After 30 years of painting from close observation of the forests, rocks and rivers, I feel I am no longer observing the natural world around me but rather, in a reversal of roles, the natural world seems to be observing me. Direct and spontaneous brushstrokes become intuitive movements that follow breath and echo emotional responses to this living breathing vitality. Through a dynamic energetic exchange I feel as though I am being held within an intelligent, sentient field that expresses itself through colors, shapes and movement. I am both humbled and awed by this process.
I learn what I need to know by painting. The more I paint the less separation there is between inner and outer ecologies which results in a linking of perceptions with the natural world where attempts to define or control are useless. For me, painting is like deep prayer awakening a reverence for the earth’s inner landscape; the image is in you, and you are in the image. Painting is my breath; beauty my compass, and the earth my body.