The Artist Project 2017

 This year's Artist Project in Toronto was an exceptional event for me. Many sales and new connections. I am so grateful for all the positive feedback on my new work and I look forward to getting back into the studio for my next solo show at Lake Placid Centre for the Arts opening June 23!

A few shots of the final booth set up on Opening Night which was very well attended as you can see! 

Toronto Artist Project 2017

The last few months has seen a steady rhythmic production of new paintings. The wintery months in Montreal usually turn me into an introvert who hunkers down in the studio all day, returning home in the early evening to eat a meal and read until bedtime. The days are short, the light is limited and the temperature is cold outside. 

This year there has been the added preoccupation of a frightening political situation south of the border. There seems to be a constant barrage of information and events that is simultaneously promoting fear and hatred as it also awakens people to rise up in a shared love of humanity and our planet. It feels both inspiring and frightening to watch this tension of opposites become more and more polarized. I understand the world through intuition and feeling. It is my intuition that if we are able to hold the tension between the opposites long enough perhaps a third way will be born or made known to us. I feel the familiar crumbling away and the earth shifting, it feels dangerous and uncertain. All I can do is trust the process that is unfolding, speak up when my heart tells me to and PAINT. I paint to learn what it is I need to know. My paintings are always ahead of my own understanding of life and so I follow their lead and let them guide me.

All of this is showing up in my work as a fervent inner burning that transmutes into brighter and bolder colours!  This video is a brief glimpse into some of the newest work:

Next Tuesday I will load the car with all the new work and head for Toronto to exhibit at The Artist Project , a large contemporary Art Fair of 250 artists. Please help me to spread the word and come by yourself if you are in the area! Always a fun event to attend and I'd love to see you! Stop by at booth 922 and say hi!

Beyond Blue

A new painting that was begun at Vermont Studio Centre where I began exploring the color blue. I just finished this piece in the Montreal studio a day after Solstice.

Beyond Blue, acrylic on canvas, 36" x 48" 

Mourning Light

An exhibition of recent paintings by Holly Friesen at Les Mots Tremblant 

- Opening Friday, December 16, 5-7pm -

Mont Tremblant, QC 

exhibition continues until January 21, 2017 and closes with a Brunch from 11-3pm

"The transformation of the heart is a wondrous thing, no matter how you arrive there."

~Patti Smith

This exhibition is dedicated to Walt Pascoe, the love of my life, whose passing from the earth on the solstice of last year has been mourned in the sweetest light possible.

The only way my heart could survive this loss was to paint my way through it.  After having mourned his absence for a full year I find his presence in everything I see and touch.

Read More at Creative Thresholds

Inspiration Soars!

The Vermont Studio Center is a magical kingdom for artists. I have just returned from filling my inspiration cup to the brim and am now overflowing with gratitude for the time and space spent in this unique artist-in-residency program.

The main building where we eat and gather is in an old red mill

A short walk over a bridge and through the town of Johnson brought me to my studio building, The Barbara White building. My studio, like all the studios was big and bright and inviting. I had the bonus of two windows that looked out over the Gihon River.

 

 

Over 60 artists and writers from all over the world are selected every month to come and share in this marvellous experience.

Alive in the Moment!

I continue to find my way through the clouds of grief that follow and envelope me everywhere. Oddly the grief has become a constant in my life, almost like an unwelcome companion that I am starting to get used to cause it just won't go away. I have started to make peace with this unwelcome companion.

The one place I feel my strength return is hiking in the Adirondacks. I can't always find someone to hike with and so I have been going on my own, or rather, with my unwelcome companion, which has made the silence in the woods roar in that special way it does when you are alone in the forest with your grief.

   

 The stones emanate a strong presence, the wind animates and the trees have never felt like such dear friends.

What's Going On These Days

It has been a busy Spring/Summer so far. I have had the privilege and honour to install many of my larger paintings in beautiful locations. One of the perks of being an "indy" artist, is meeting fabulous new people, sharing stories and traveling to new places. Here is a glimpse of some of the paintings that have gone out into the world this season:

 Luminous Ground / triptych 24" x 72" in Manor Tremblant, QC

 Into the Forest / 60" x 48" in a private Equinox condo, Mont-Tremblant, QC

 Reflecting on Then and Now / 60" x 48" in a private Equinox condo, Mont-Tremblant, QC

 The Red Line / 36" x 72" in a collector's home in Grande Isle, Vermont

Recently I was part of a wonderful new collaboration between my studio building, Complexe Canal Lachine and the Montreal Folk Festival. 

For our annual Open House this year I curated and organized an exhibition that was open to all Montreal artists entitled CADENCE. Artists were asked to create a piece inspired by music of their choice. From the seventy entries that came in thirty paintings were selected and hung in our building's gallery, Centre d'Art E.K. Voland as part of the Open House celebrations.  The exhibition was then moved to the recently renovated Salon 1861 in Griffintown where it still hangs until June 30. Check it out if you get a chance!

The Open Studio was a lot of fun this year with a variety of musicians dropping by to make music in the studio!

Ray Sealey

Sophia DiGeronimo

Ellie Young

In the Adirondacks this summer I have two paintings at The Wild Center in Tupper Lake as part of an exhibition entitled "Seeing the Forest and the Trees"

You can also find my work at the Lake Placid Center for the Arts Main Street Gallery in Lake Placid.