The Wisdom Tree

I love old trees, I love knowing they have lived longer than me and that their majestic beauty and strength is available for all who stop to behold them. More recently I have noticed that if you sit with them long enough you start to feel more present and grounded in your own being. Trees are wise and good teachers. 

In honour of these beings I decided to do a give away of one of my paintings in exchange for a story. I put a call out on all my social media platforms and received many beautiful stories about The Wisdom Tree. I read stories of heartbreaking tenderness, childhood memories, bleak beauty, sadness and so much more. 

I read every single word and was deeply touched by each writer's contribution. Some stories were short, some were longer, some were poems and others just a simple anecdote. Each one spoke of your heart connection to trees though and it was a joy to read them ALL. I have selected one winner but there are several honourable mentions as well. Thank-you for all your contributions.

The winning piece is a poem by Montreal writer Adriana Palanca. 

Honorable Mentions: (their stories/poems follow below)

Bram Levinson, Montreal, QC, Canada

Carole Reese, The Adirondacks, NY, USA

Dominique Normand, La Malbaie, QC, Canada

Adriana touched on the spiritual aspect of trees in a way that brought a sense of the sacred to small, everyday moments including the monk-like squirrels which made me smile. While we often think of trees as static beings her words brought life and movement to The Wisdom Tree. Congratulations Adriana, The Wisdom Tree painting can now accompany your poem!

On Sunday mornings,

I take my communion in nature's cathedral.

The branches of the trees like flying 

buttresses, arching upwards to create a

vaulted ceiling of leaf and sky. The light-

dappled canopy glinting like stained glass. The

squirrels on their fat haunches, standing in for 

monks. The insects, chirruping and humming, 

our choir. A peace settles over me as soon as I

step into this sacred place, the solemnity of 

the trees inspiring a reverence not of an 

uncertain, unknowable God, but of the divine in 

each of our bodies, tree or human. A spark felt 

in the vibrating fibers of our throats when we 

speak, and in the rippling sinews of our limbs 

when we move. There is no need to kneel here, 

no missal to peruse or hymn to intone. 

Our shared presence is prayer enough. In the 

embrace of the green cathedral, surrounded 

by my woody cousins, I am able to move past 

the rumbling and raging of thought. I am able, 

finally, to see that spark, orange and hot, and 

hear the answers that were inside me all along. 

Standing by the River

Standing by the River (Autumn in Algonquin)  / 16" x 20"

“I want to stand by the river in my finest dress. I want to sing, strong and hard, and stomp my feet with a hundred others so that the waters hum with our happiness. I want to dance for the renewal of the world.”

-Robin Wall Kimmerer

This piece was inspired by a remarkable afternoon sitting beside the sparkling flow of the Oxtongue River last Sept during my residency in the park.
The painting will be exhibited as part of a group exhibition at the Algonquin Art Centre entitled "The Spirit of the Group of Seven" which will include original paintings from the Group of Seven in celebration of the 100th anniversary of their first exhibition at OAC. It is such an honour to be part of this show which will be on exhibit from June to October in Algonquin Park.

Algonquin Artist in Residency

Algonquin Provincial Park 2019

I was fortunate enough to recently be selected for a week long residency in Algonquin Park.

The Park that is iconic to landscape painting in Canada and even more so in the transitional blaze of Autumn.

I wasn't sure what to expect but upon arrival at the Algonquin Art Center I was greeted by two friendly gallery managers and given a bag full of treats! I was then led to my accommodations which was a simple room attached to a building full of seasoned and young naturalists who work and study in the park. This staff housing is located on Found picturesque Lake Found. 

Zion

The National Parks of Utah have long been on my bucket list so I was overjoyed when I finally reached the park entrance to Zion! 

I knew the landscape would be exceptional and awe inspiring but I truly had no idea how it would take my breath away. Once again, the diversity of this planet's land formations is astounding to behold.

"...the geology that underlies lusher landscapes is exposed to the eye, and this gives it a skeletal elegance, just as its harsh conditions - the vast distances between water, the many dangers, the extremes of heat and cold - keep you in mind of your mortality." 

~Rebecca Solnit

James Rauchman ~ Studio Visit

Part of what keeps me inspired as an artist is to spend time with other artists. Artists who have devoted their lives to their work. This week-end I had the great pleasure of visiting two such artists in their studios. The first of these studio visits was with James Rauchman a NYC painter recently moved to upstate Vermont. 

Open Studio 2019

OPEN STUDIO

Thursday, June 6, 2019

3pm to 8pm

2 Upcoming Montreal Shows!

TWO 
Upcoming Montreal Shows
All New Paintings

Desert Landscape

Moving through space and time in a new landscape makes my gypsy heart beat faster. Having recently returned from an inspiring trip through space and time in Cali I couldn't feel more nourished.

Joshua Tree National Park has been beckoning me for decades and when I heard that my friend and fellow painter, Theresa Passarello was going I couldn't resist meeting her there. Theresa picked me up at LAX and we headed straight for the desert. Once we were released from the endless traffic of LA we entered a landscape of rolling hills and spinning windmills with snow capped mountains in the distance. My blood was pumping. The thrill of a new vista is my favourite drug.

  

The Prairie Paintings (dedicated to my mother)

This November my mother, who has suffered from increasing dementia for the past several years, was hospitalized with aspiration pneumonia. Apparently this is a fairly common path in any degenerative disease and with this inability to swallow the downward spiral begins. 

Under Western Skies / 20" x 20"

Art and Cocktails at High Peaks Resort

This is happening at High Peaks Resort this Thursday, October 18th in Lake Placid.

Air Canada purchases a painting for their collection

I was honoured to have a large 48" x 48" painting purchased by Air Canada last month. I am always grateful when a corporation such as Air Canada supports Canadian art and artists by including original artworks in their collections. These artworks grace the walls of Air Canada's signature Maple Leaf lounges that are lovely, relaxing spaces to retreat to in the midst of hectic modern day travel. It is truly an artist's dream to have her art placed in such a place where so many eyes will have the time to look and take in the painting in a leisurely manner.

I am based out of Montreal but my roots are in Saskatchewan where I was born and raised. Air Canada generously flew me out to Saskatoon for the ribbon cutting ceremony of the new Maple Leaf lounge that has opened there.

Its All About Paint

Introducing my new 5 min short video about my life and process:

Its All About Paint from Holly Friesen on Vimeo.

Third Anniversary of Gallery 46 in Lake Placid, NY

Three Year Birthday Celebration of Gallery 46 in Lake Placid, NY. I adore this "little gallery that could". A gallery that Lake Placid Center for the Arts began as a temporary installation on the Main Street and has become a thriving beacon of culture and community within the Adirondacks. 

Green

An aptly timed exhibition as the tender green buds of Spring burst forth with life!

A road trip to Cooperstown, NY brought me and my paintings to the delightful and well established Smithy Gallery. Three floors of artwork exploring Green as a secondary color with secondary meanings.  

Making a Movie

For the past few months I have been working with film maker extraordinaire Patrice Halley to create a mini doc about my work. This has been a far more intense process than I anticipated.

   

Allowing anyone in my studio while I'm working is unusual but to have a guy with a camera in your face and underfoot every which way I turned was especially daunting.

    

The Beauty of Winter in Québec

7am Morning Walk / 24" x 24"

The winter figures prominently in my psyche and work these days. Having been born close to the Winter Solstice makes December a time of change and reflection for me. The ever shortening days, the receding and then returning light, the cold and snow wrapping itself around everything in a silent embrace, these all influence my work.

Natural Translations

My annual Tremblant exhibition is now up and running at Les Mots Tremblant 

This charming and cozy venue is the perfect place
to host my paintings over the holidays. Visitors can have a glass of wine, a bowl of soup or a hot drink while relaxing and taking in the paintings. This is my absolute favorite way for people to view the artworks that have taken days, weeks and in some cases, months to produce.

Mont-Tremblant will always be close to my heart and I love to return to old friends and new with this annual exhibition.

A Summer Collage

Collage 

is a word that comes to me often lately. I move through time and space seeking images for my work, even following them as they lead me from one adventure to another. 

Every single place, person and moment is offered up as material for translation into paint.

Life and Art fuse.

 

Watching the Patterns of the Land

I have been reading The Snowy Tower by Martin Shaw and am enthralled with his insights into how stories and images come to us from watching the patterns of the land:

"A slow emergence from the tree line - a mist of story. Not in the clipped tempo of the written sentence, but in a galloping, roaming, rampant language that tears into the soul like the vivid colors of a jungle bird...We no longer rove, ablaze and alive in the greenness of things...we're getting big on statistics, big on knowledge, but if ever we needed wisdom, now is the time."

Breaking Through / 30" x 40" 

Strength in Vulnerability

"Dance when you're broken open. Dance, if you've torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you're perfectly free."  ~Rumi

The other day I drew the Hanged Man card from the Tarot deck and it felt appropriate. Twenty months ago Loss was the price I had to pay for a great Love in my life and Walt was worth every tear. 

Recently my heart started to beat with love and life again. I could feel the blood start to flow anew as I recognized the first feelings of longing again. I didn't think it was possible. Slowly, tentatively I felt eros stirring inside, I couldn't believe it...and then just as I started to move towards the beckoning my heart was promptly shattered. 

Grief flows in mysterious patterns.

We Appear in this World for a Brief Moment / 40" x 60"

The Hanged Man represents an inward seeking.

The true quest is seeking within, not without. The fresh wound of loss was ripped open,