I find my muse in the ordinary yet extraordinary moments of life. Working from my cherished (and increasingly paint spattered) antique bureau in a cosy corner of my living room, I embrace the eclectic roles of a printmaker, oil portrait painter, and digital/analogue abstract artist…. as well as my more practical, artisanal, side as a craftswoman and maker.

As a full time creative, based in the heart of Sherwood Forest in the UK, my days are spent working with a plethora of materials - wood, leather, textiles - and result in a rich array of colourful outputs. I defy being put in a box. Indeed, I view my ability to turn my hand to many different skills, disciplines and styles as a real strength in a challenging and (climate changing) economy.

As a painter, I love faces. Beyond the obvious power and beauty of eyes as a mode of expression of emotion and narrative, I’m particularly attracted to the inherent dramas created by strong light and shadow. For me, there is true magic in the visual effect of a correctly placed, shaped and toned shadow, which in a moment lifts a facial feature into the third dimension from its previous flat plane. To create depth, and texture within very thin, flat layerings of oil paint is a pleasure I never get tired of.

Printmaking demands an entirely different approach: working in relief with lino, often in monochrome, and with much more graphic and stylised designs. Here, I playfully engage with the natural world, with leaf and other forms… and particularly with the figures of cats and dogs, including my own little black cat, Kiki, who is immortalised in many of my pieces. My prints are whimsical and lively in equal parts and I seek to make work which is beautiful, playful and full of personality.

My abstract pieces demonstrate my deepest love - colour. In analogue I work with watercolours, wet in wet, and metallic inks, to create explosions of colour and line that meld sinuously into one another. In digital, I use the Procreate app to build layers of colours, textures and shapes, creating highly energetic and vivid compositions. I enjoy the inherent freedom of the abstract in the expression of energies and themes, which tend by their nature to be more constrained in figurative methods.

The constant in my eclectic and often transient blends of media, modalities and subjects, is that, always, I seek to create pieces that captivate. I strive to invoke that rush of warmth and joy when one views an artwork and there’s a connection there. If I can inspire that… or even the simple act of conjuring a smile, then my job is properly done.

Katie Holland
March 2024